Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

These are very difficult times in the health service. I have used six hospitals in the past two months, including Temple Street Hospital for my child, as well as hospitals in Sligo, Roscommon and Galway. Unfortunately, on two occasions ambulances had to be called as advanced paramedics were required to treat my mother and another member of my family. I cannot compliment the staff and hospitals involved highly enough for their professionalism and the urgency shown. Therefore, very good things are happening. I do not think anger will help in sorting out the difficult issues that need to be addressed in the health service. I want to highlight this fact because sometimes we get into blaming everyone. People should be held accountable, but there are excellent things happening in the health service. I say this as somebody who has used it in recent months.

We need to discuss the cost of car insurance. I read today that for a particular young lady aged 34 years, it is cheaper to rent a car for a year than to pay insurance. It costs her €49 a week to rent a car. This indicates that there is something fundamentally wrong. We have spoken about the cost of car insurance for young people. We are not talking in this instance about a young person but a 34 year old professional lady for whom the cost of insurance would be €2,000 or €3,000. It is cheaper for her to rent a car. Fair play to her for showing great initiative, but there is something fundamentally wrong with the insurance industry if this is being allowed to happen. Something must be done about it by the Government, of which I am part.