John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. Universal GP services for citizens over 70 are most welcome. It is a very good day for our health service as we put in place the legislative underpinnings for this. It represents the second phase of our reform of the health service, following on from free GP care for the under-sixes.

The small step to which Senator Crown referred directly affects 300,000 people who, at the moment, are paying their GPs for a visit and, in many cases, are deciding whether they should spend the €50 or €60 on a GP or on food for their family.It is not a small step but a significant one. While in the grand scheme of things I would probably take Senator John Crown's point, to downplay or minimise the effect of it is a little ungenerous.

The universal basis of the provision for the over-70s with no income assessment is a fundamental principle of the Labour Party. The Minister of State will remember that the Labour Party ran its entire 2007 general election campaign on the provision of universal health care, which was rejected at a time when former Deputy Bertie Ahern announced a tax reduction of a couple of pence in the pound. Nobody was more surprised than we were.