We have a mixed system and it has generally worked very well from the perspective of private insurers. The issue is one of equity. I would like to move to a situation where more of the private activity would be moved to a private environment so that public beds can be used for those in greatest need. I would love to see a situation emerge which would be neutral in terms of how public hospitals are paid for private and public patients, if one wants to use that language. Clearly there are great incentives when one type of bed earns more money than another type. We all know that the 80:20 ratio is not maintained, which is unsatisfactory.
There is increasing competition in the health insurance market. A new entrant recently announced its intention to provide cover and there is also a new entrant in the dental insurance market. I welcome all those developments. There is huge demand for the whole range of policies and products which these insurers offer. The way to keep the costs down is through greater competition. All over Europe, including in some of the countries that are held up as having a model health system, there is a raging debate about the cost of health care in many of the countries which traditionally funded their service from the public purse.
It is not unique to Ireland that health care is expensive because of new products, new technology and higher staff costs. These contribute to insurance and to more expensive health care costs. From the Government's perspective — this has been clear since 1999 — we want to move to a situation where the full economic cost of providing a private bed is charged to the private insurer.