Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Indeed, it is clear from the ESRI report that the foundations are not in place to meet the Government's original timeline of introducing universal health insurance by 2019. Those foundations include sufficient capacity to satisfy unmet demand and the provision of enhanced primary and social care. The introduction of free GP care for under sixes and over 70s has been done seamlessly and is very much welcomed by the people who are benefiting from it. The next move as part of that strategy is to provide free GP care to the children of all working families. We also intend to put in place reformed structures to replace the HSE with hospital groups and trusts, community health care organisations and other new structures. I look forward to the implementation of those hospital groups, under which the contracts for medical personnel will be with a group rather than an individual hospital and where the groups will have the capacity to evolve into trusts which will be able to make the decisions that reflect what they consider to be the best options for their hospitals in the years ahead. We intend, too, to introduce financial reforms and advance the Healthy Ireland and public health and patient safety agendas.

When all of those measures are completed, we will be able to compare the advantages and disadvantages of a number of funding options for universal health insurance. It is true to say that reform in the past was rushed and, as a result, serious mistakes were made, such as with the construction of the HSE in 2005. The intention of Government is to continue to provide a better health service for the Irish people and carry out further research on the models of universal health insurance, how they can be funded and what the subsidy should be. The decision on the exact nature of the model will be made by the next Government and implemented in the term after that.

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