James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This amendment has nothing to do with the Bill. The Bill deals with the current market, which is voluntary and open to those who wish to avail of it and can afford to do so. The Government believes in a health system that provides care to people on the basis of medical need rather than ability to pay. Unlike Sinn Féin, however, we have a plan that has been enacted. It is not a fanciful or simplistic plan but it involves reforming our entire health service.

To quote John Donne, "No man is an island, entire to itself". No part of the health service is an island. There is leadership in the Department of Health with the appointment of a new Secretary General. The HSE will be dissolved and has new leadership at the top. The third leg of the stool is the VHI, which has a new chairman and CEO. I will be meeting them this afternoon to reaffirm my insistence on addressing costs in the private health sector.

We are going to reform the entire system, from primary care with the introduction of free GP care, through hospitals with the formation of hospital groups and the smaller hospital framework to long-term and community care. Senator Cullinane stated that inputs are most important.