Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister needs to deal with it. It is an example of how ineffective Fine Gael has been in setting its health policy. It has introduced effective quasi-private hospitals in our public hospital system and this is regressive. The hole will only get bigger because the incentive for managers is to have increased private output in the context of our public health system, and the people who cannot afford health insurance are being left behind. They are the people who must wait longer, and we see this in the waiting times in our public hospital system.

Public patients are all citizens and if people happen to want private health insurance, they should go to a private hospital. The State should not get those citizens who pay their taxes throughout their lives and charge them twice. It is having an impact on their health insurance premiums. Effectively, they are paying twice. They have paid their taxes and they are also paying health insurance. They have a right to health care in the context of our public health system. The Minister should not be levying middle Ireland with an additional tax and levy, which is what the Health (Amendment) Act does. Of course, it would leave a hole, but the Minister has a duty to fix that and manage the budget of the system properly. It is one of the biggest health budgets in the EU with some of the worst outputs. It is for the Minister to match the gap and provide a vision for the Dáil and stop talking about solutions in months and years to come when he is not in the Department.

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