Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

As I indicated, in this State, where the overall ratio of general practitioners to population is much too low and far below the European Union average, as the Minister admitted in response to questions I asked in the House, we have a duty and responsibility to ensure equitable access for all citizens to their local medical practitioner. We are constantly challenged when we call for better health services and wider entitlement and the question posed is, "Who will pay for this?" The question should be, "Who has paid for this?" The answer is clearly that the pensioners of Ireland paid for a decent health service in taxes during their working lives.

If the Government seeks savings, instead of removing medical cards, let it remove tax breaks from the developers of private hospitals.

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