Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, is dealing with the apprenticeship Bill and requested that all submissions be made by the end of March. I assume he is assessing the submissions and will obtain an update for the Deputy on when the Minister of State expects to put the Bill together.

As the Deputy is aware, the Government made a further allocation in the health area recently, of €75 million, to deal with issues related to the fair deal scheme and, I hope, reduce the waiting period to an average of four to five weeks. This will be more acceptable than the existing waiting period of 18 to 20 weeks. The Minister for Health will deal with the question of the review of the fair deal scheme, but I cannot provide a date of publication of the review. It will, obviously, be discussed in the House.

Universal health insurance will not be introduced during the lifetime of the Government. The Government has made it clear that it must be delayed because of the complexity of what is involved. The Minister has said he expects to be in a position to produce a paper on costings by the middle of the year. The Deputy is aware that hospital groups have been set up and that they will evolve into trusts. The money follows the patient concept is in place; primary care centres are being opened and agreement has been reached on GP cards for children under six years and people aged over 70. Being able to deal with people's medical needs based on medical requirements as distinct from how much money they might have is the essence of universal health insurance, but this cannot happen until all of the elements are in place.

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