Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

In the context of the legislation, I am seeking to facilitate that. Once one does a means test at 70, that should be the end of the matter. There are very few people who can expect their means to improve after the age of 70. Perhaps one or two might win the Lotto but there should not be very prohibitive legislative requirements for the sake of one or two people.

The legislation to which I am referring will also protect community rating. Since the Supreme Court decision of 16 July, community rating is extremely vulnerable. I intend to include a measure in the legislation that protects community rating. If I do not make such a provision, older and sicker people in Ireland will not be able to afford health insurance, if the market segments. The Government is addressing this issue, which has not received a lot of attention since the Supreme Court decision. People have not yet made the connection between the decision of the court and the potential consequences for older people. We must bring in legislative provisions to protect the cost of health insurance for older people.

It is important to point out that people would not have dropped their health insurance because they were in receipt of a medical card because the card only provided for the statutory hospital charge. If one has a medical card, one does not pay that charge. Otherwise, there were no other hospital related benefits that people would have assumed on getting the card. The VHI's Plan P covers that and it has informed the public that if people exited Plan P and wish to re-enter it, they can do so without any penalty. They will not have to pay back any money for the past seven years. Approximately 25,000 people have that insurance plan, which means they do not have to pay the ten-day statutory charge.

I cannot deal with all the issues raised in the short time available to me. However, I will endeavour to deal with some more by way of question and answer.

On the issue of the €100 million figure, €16 million is the capitation and €20 million is the 5%. I must make it clear that we were always going to help 95% of older people. One of the reasons there was so much confusion over this matter, which I very much regret, is that everybody over 70——