Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

A number of important issues arise in this regard. The 400,000 who use BUPA Ireland's service want to continue to avail of private health insurance and have their policies protected. We should consider the staff of BUPA Ireland and the position of VHI Healthcare which expects to receive resources from the private health insurance operators under existing legislation which did not envisage the circumstances which have arisen. We will have to wait to see what form the new corporate entity will take. It appears, on the face of it, that the underwriting company has been dealt with in a different way. It seems that it is outside the scope of the legislation. We will have to take legal advice on how to handle this. We will need to see whether Quinn Direct gets a licence from the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority and the Health Insurance Authority. We will need to take account of the positions of the other private health insurance companies such as VHI Healthcare. The Barrington group which is already looking at that issue has been taking account of——

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