Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can only give a two-part answer to that. The first part is to advise the Deputy of the plan, which we are currently enacting. First, we will extend tax-funded GP care without fees to the oldest and youngest in society. Once that is done, hopefully, by the summer, we then wish to enter contract negotiations with the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, on extending it other groups, including other schoolchildren, chronic disease groups and so on. At the same time in parallel, we are trying to make health insurance more affordable for more people because it is good that people take out health insurance in the same way they take out other forms of insurance, whether it is life insurance, pension cover or travel insurance. It is open to debate whether a multi-payer system is the best way of keeping costs down. The best example of keeping costs down is our own system. We spend €1.5 billion less than we did seven years ago and more patients are seen. The public system is a good example of keeping costs down. I just wish we were able to do much more than we can at present.

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