Results 12,661-12,680 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Obviously the regulator will be the Health Insurance Authority on health aspects, the Financial Regulator on prudential aspects and the Competition Authority on consumer issues. It will be subject to the same regulatory environment as Vivas and Quinn Health.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This will not take effect until next year.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This amendment removes the Minister for Health and Children and the Minister for Finance from their roles in regulating the activities of new subsidiaries, which will be the responsibility of the Financial Regulator after authorisation.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I am happy to accept this amendment.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This is a technical amendment to reflect the wording provided in amendment No. 9. The purpose of the section is to allow the board to access capital for the purpose of seeking authorisation without having any borrowing raised for that purpose included within the aggregate limit imposed on other borrowings.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: When VHI obtains commercial freedom, as it will be authorised by the Financial Regulator, the making of orders will not arise. If amending legislation is required it would need to come to the House. However, there will be no orders as such.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This amendment to the Long Title is proposed to clarify that under the provisions of the Bill the board is to be obliged to apply for an authorisation, which is consistent with the amendments already agreed.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I believe the Senator is asking if it could be done without reference to general practitioners. The answer is that I believe it could. If they want to be commercially successful they will have to include general practice.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: In fairness, they have buy-in from general practitioners. The answer to the Senator's question is "Yes."

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This has been an exclusively female debate, with the exception of Senator Twomey. I thank the Senator for providing a degree of gender balance.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: The officials behind me are male, so there has been a male input.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: These amendments simply insert additional definitions in the original section 1, consequent on the more significant amendments which I will ask the House to approve today.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: This amendment is associated with the proposal in the new section 7, which I will introduce later, to allow the board of the VHI to establish a subsidiary company for the specific purpose of carrying on its health insurance and health related insurance schemes. The intention is that the board will, on the appointed day, transfer all of its health insurance business to the new subsidiary....

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I am happy to do that. I indicated when we discussed the Bill on Second Stage that I intended to introduce a date by which the VHI had to become authorised and that date is dealt with in a further amendment, with which we will deal later. Senator Fitzgerald has an amendment tabled to this section which provides that the VHI shall not engage in any further new business before its becomes...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: As I indicated in my comments, the purpose of Senator Fitzgerald's amendment has been encompassed in the amendment I have tabled. Amendment No. 9 deals with the date issue, which is to be by the end of 2008, quite an onerous date in many respects. The intention originally was by 2012, so we have effectively brought it back by three full years, and I believe that will be onerous on VHI. In...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Amendment No. 6 is a technical drafting amendment to open the section further to enable the inclusion of paragraph (d). Amendment No. 7 provides for subsection 5 being subject to subsection (5A) which follows as amendment No. 11. Amendment No. 11 sets out in greater detail than contained in the present section 2 the means by which the board may accumulate the reserve required to secure...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Yes, it is.

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: Obviously the VHI has to build up its reserves. To be authorised it will have to meet the 40% requirement its competitors have to meet. The Financial Regulator will not authorise the VHI unless it puts aside approximately 40% of its premium income by way of a reserve fund. At the moment it has——-

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: That is correct — 28%. This amendment says, in effect, that there are a number of different ways by which there could be an injection of outside capital, for example. It could do it by reinsurance — offloading a certain number of policy holders and having them reinsured. There are various mechanisms the VHI can use and this gives it maximum flexibility so that it can meet the end of...

Seanad: Voluntary Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Nov 2007)

Mary Harney: I agree with Senator Twomey about the scale of the reserve required. However, it is not a matter for me as this is the requirement of the Financial Regulator, which is independent. The regulator in Ireland takes a much more conservative view compared with other countries. In Britain I believe it is of the order of 25%. In fact when VIVAS Health was incorporated in Northern Ireland and...