With regard to the health information Bill, the Future Health document stated it would have been published by the end of the second quarter of 2013. The Taoiseach might indicate when we can expect publication of that Bill.

With regard to the universal health insurance legislation and the White Paper that was promised on that, I would point out that, under the Dutch model, to which the Taoiseach was very attached during the general election, there has been an increase of up to 46% to date to the Dutch taxpayer following the introduction of universal health insurance. The Taoiseach might indicate whether the Government still intends to introduce the set of legislative proposals that would underpin the introduction of a universal health insurance system to Ireland, particularly given that our own private health insurance system is now in a very precarious and difficult situation, and some analysts are suggesting it is in a death spiral given the numbers leaving the health insurance sector. When does the Government intend to publish the White Paper on universal health insurance and when can we expect the health information Bill to be published?

The Minister for Health is at the Estimates committee this morning. The health information Bill is due for later this year. The publicly funded GP scheme is also due later this year as part of the approach towards universal health insurance.

In respect of the private health insurance business, the Minister and the Department have been engaged with the private health insurers over the past week to ten days. I understand they have made substantial progress in regard to contributions from the sector in respect of reduction of costs and all of that area. The Minister gave an interim briefing to Cabinet yesterday and I expect that those discussions will conclude, hopefully, in the next couple of days, with results in the interests of the taxpayer. When that is reported to the Cabinet by the Minister, we will advise the House on the outcome.