asked the Minister for Health whether it is his intention to include all citizens in a free no-means-test general practitioner, medicine, dental and hospital scheme.

A system of the nature envisaged in the question could not possibly be sustained by our community in the foreseeable future. It is the Government's aim, in accordance with their manifesto, to provide a first class service which will secure the highest possible standard of physical and mental health for all the people and ensure that no person will be denied medical care because of inability to provide for it out of his or her own resources.

Would the Minister agree that the health services have within them a number of services based on the free no-means-test principle and that the majority if not all of them stemmed from a general principle established by Fianna Fáil legislation during the years? Would the Minister say why it is that he has now decided to depart from this general principle in relation to this most important section of the general medical services?

I do not think I have departed or am departing from any general principle. What the Deputy suggests in his question is of a most sweeping and far-reaching nature. He suggests a free no-means-test general practitioner, medicine, dental and hospital scheme. It is a question of priorities. As I said in my reply, I know that our community just could not afford now or in the foreseeable future a comprehensive scheme of that order. We just have not got the economic resources to support it.

Is that not a damning admission of failure after 50 years?

3.