Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

That might happen later. I agree particularly with what the Senator said about VHI coverage and what it pays for. It seems that anybody who asks persons in a nursing home or a private or public hospital if they are all right can put in a bill and get a few bob. Like the Senator, I have raised this issue on other occasions in the Chamber.

I would like to see a situation whereby a person going for a procedure, for example, a woman having a D and C, need not go in the night before because there is no need for an overnight stay. One can go in at 7 a.m. and be discharged later that evening. If one is having minor day surgery one should not be brought in the evening before because that is where the charges occur. I do not know if the fault lies with the insurer or the hospital.

I tabled a matter on the Adjournment some weeks ago regarding maternity services. A pregnant woman might wish to go into hospital to have her baby delivered by a midwife under the public health system and she might like a private room. However, she is denied this facility because private rooms are at the request of the consultant who will tell the woman she can only have a private room if she consults privately, using her private health insurance. There is something wrong with such a system and it should be looked at and tightened up. Perhaps if that were to happen, much of the money that has been spent, unnecessarily, in my opinion, might be offset against the high premiums people must pay.

I welcome the Bill and look forward to debating it on Committee Stage with its accompanying amendments. I believe the Opposition is being reasonable. Perhaps there are areas in the Bill where there might be some tweaking. I hope that when we go deeper into it next week we might widen it out somewhat. The legislation was necessary and will firm up in people's minds that these provisions are signed, sealed and delivered. It gives some comfort, particularly for the older and sicker section of our population.

With any luck, at this stage in their lives the persons in this Chamber will not have had great value for all the money they have paid into the VHI. That is a nice thing to say rather than a bad thing. My parents are now deceased but in their day they would certainly have felt they were paying out a great deal of money and getting very little for it, perhaps the odd appendicitis operation, tonsillectomy or treatment for a childhood accident such as the person falling from a window who needed to go to the hospital. However, in the final stages of their lives, both my parents received from the VHI ten times what they paid into it, particularly my father, who suffered with respiratory failure in the latter part of his life. I say that as a source of comfort. The care will be there for us and what we pay in today, we will reap in the long run.

I heard what Senator Twomey said and I sympathise and hold similar views. It is difficult, especially at a time when we are going through an economic downturn and other levies are imposed upon us. There is none of us who does not look at the bottom line of our salary cheques every month and think that we are much less well-off than we were six months ago.

I welcome the legislation, which is necessary, and I look forward to debating it as it goes through the Chamber.