asked the Minister for Health if he accepts the policy declaration in paragraph five of the NESC report on major issues in health policy that international policy has been towards access free of charge at the point of use for all citizens regardless of income or class.

I am not aware of the grounds for the statement quoted by the Deputy. The proposals, which I have announced recently, extend free hospital maintenance to the entire population. I consider however that some equitable balance must be maintained between services which are available without charge to everybody and those for which payment must be made at the point of use by some sections of the community. In adopting this approach, I believe that I am not at variance with advanced thinking in other countries on this subject.

Is it not the position that the report to which I have referred points out, at page 76, that the medical profession have begun already to press for universal compulsory insurance and that they are likely to intensify their insistence not only because this trend is observable already on a worldwide scale but for other reasons also which concern emigration? The reference was to the Irish medical profession. Therefore, what the Minister is proposing is a regression from what is observable in most advanced western European countries.