Yesterday, VHI announced a third increase in health insurance premiums in less than 12 months. It will kick in from March. These three increases over the past year will see many families paying more than €500 extra per year in insurance bills. It seems for many people that there is no end to the rip-off and price hikes. It is not just health insurance. It is energy bills, rent, groceries, motor fuel and childcare. Households are being hammered non-stop, yet Government sits back and does nothing to stop the rip-off. There is something the Tánaiste could do on health insurance costs. The Government has real leverage to tackle to the insurance companies and get a break for customers. Private healthcare relies completely on the public system. Private health insurance is supported by generous tax subsidies of up to €400 million every year. The Government needs to grow a backbone and use the leverage it has. Will the Tánaiste call in the top brass of these insurance companies and private hospitals to demand they stop ripping people off?

The Deputy has missed an important point, which is that this Government is advancing Sláintecare. It is advancing the creation of a universal healthcare system, and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is leading on the full implementation of the public-only consultant contract. I hear much commentary about vested interests who have pushed back against making sure that public facilities are used for public patients and there is not that inequality that existed in the past. That is further reducing any suggestion that private health insurance is benefiting-----

How many people have health insurance? The costs are going up. People have it because of-----

Please conclude the answer, Tánaiste, and move on.

Is Deputy Carthy now the champion of the private health insurance sector? I am confused here. We are delivering in the public sector. Everything we are doing is about making sure that, regardless of means, you can access healthcare in a time-efficient manner. That is the policy direction of the Government.

That is not the reality.

That is what we are doing. That is why, whether you are with the VHI or anyone else, we are decoupling private health insurance from access to public hospitals and particularly to consultants on public-only contracts.