Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-15
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Brian Stanley (IND), Laois

I am hoping to get a bit longer than 83 years out of it.
The fundamental question here concerns people who do not have health cover. Progress is being made towards implementing Sláintecare, and I acknowledge, in particular, the stand taken by the Minister in relation to the contracts for consultants. If they are paid to work for the full week by the State, then they cannot do private work during that time. A plumber working for the Office of Public Work, OPW, cannot be off doing nixers during the day for somebody else. We support her in doing that.
Universal healthcare is where we have to get to. We are out of step with other states. The Taoiseach will have to admit, and he has not addressed this, that since he was the Minister for Health, those thresholds have not increased, and I acknowledge all the progress that has been made, although we have a distance to go yet. It is €184 for a single person, €266.50 for a couple and €345.50 per week for a family of four.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-15