Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I have an open mind on this. My main interest is that it operates fairly and provides fair competition and certainly that its competitors have fair competition. The consultancy employed by the two Departments will recommend to the Government how it can accumulate the capital to facilitate authorisation. Whether this comes from private sources or elsewhere has yet to be determined. My overall philosophy is that if the State does not need to be involved, it should not be. If we can use money realised from disposing of State companies to invest in health, education or justice we should.

Whether the VHI is fully or partly owned by the State or others is not of major interest to me. No plans exist to privatise it. Such a decision has not been made and it must be decided in December or January. Does Senator Twomey have any views on this?