Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. I will be careful with my time. The Minister is very welcome. He has been a regular in the House not only in his previous ministerial post but in this post as well. I am pleased to see him in the House again. Senator Crown, in particular, and Senator Cullinane used the opportunity to remind the Minister of the confidence we have in him. There is confidence in the Minister. The fact that he has such a good background means we believe he can get the job done. It is not an easy task to get done.

Credit must go to Senator Burke for his hard work over the years on this legislation. It is perfectly sensible to make it compulsory for medical practitioners to have insurance and it surprised us that this was not in place already. While his name is not on the Bill, I reckon Senator Burke should get great credit for the Bill before the House. In this respect, I am pleased to see another clear tranche of law that aims to improve the lives of citizens coming from the Seanad. The legislation clears up an apparent loophole, one which surprised all of us. Insurance is in the interests of the customer - I always refer to patients as customers. I was chairman of a hospital at one time and I tried to get the term "patient" substituted by the word "customer". I was not very successful in that, but I did my best.