Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am standing in for Senator Conway. I welcome the Minister of State. I hope this is not her last time to address the Seanad as Minister of State at the Department of Health because, to be fair to her, she has been a very proactive Minister of State. I do not say that patronisingly. As a former Chairperson of the Joint Committee on Health and Children I found it refreshing to see her take on vested interests in her Department. I commend her on the work that she has done during her time in office. I hope that if she is not promoted elsewhere next week, she stays where she is in the Department of Health.

As the Minister of State has said, this Bill is important as it deals with risk equalisation and private health insurance. However, I will begin on a discordant note. The HIA produced a report last summer which found that some private health insurers were not fully compliant with the Health Insurance (Amendment) Act 2020. I hope that the whole issue about the obligations under risk equalisation being fulfilled will be dealt with, and the incidence of non-compliance will be identified and published, but in the main it has been well done.

This whole issue is about the march towards universal healthcare and Sláintecare. In welcoming the progression of Sláintecare, which is the proposed model to deliver the healthcare system, and the advances we are making, I would have a fundamental worry about Sláintecare. On a personal level, I worry that it may not deliver what we want. Having said that, last week the Minister for Health was successful in being able to get the new hospital consultants contract over the line and I congratulate all involved.It is positive that we will see public hospitals being used as such and the whole reverse in terms of private and weekend use and so on. It is important that we recognise that delivery is working.

At the Seanad 100 celebration last Monday, Dr. John Bowman spoke about his Japanese political scientist. I often wonder how an outsider would view our healthcare system in terms of the way in which we administer and pay and fund it. I should put on record my appreciation to those men and women who work day in, day out in all parts of the healthcare system. They do a tremendous job.