Enterprise, Trade & Employment Minister Micheál Martin has welcomed an announcement by health insurer BUPA that it is still willing to enter talks with the Government on its future in this country.
Minister Martin said he did not want to raise hopes, adding that there was an obligation on BUPA not to 'go for the nuclear option' but to explore all avenues to ensure that it continued operating in this country. He was speaking after a meeting BUPA representatives and employees in Fermoy in North Cork.
BUPA had earlier opened up the prospect that it might be willing to continue operating here five days after the company announced that it is to wind up its Irish operation. In a statement, BUPA said it was willing to discuss with Government any way that would allow it to remain in business.
Speaking on RTE radio, Anne Broekhaven, director of health services contracting at BUPA Ireland, said the company would consider any reasonable proposal from Government which would allow it to make a modest return and also to pay their statutory solvency requirements.
She said BUPA Ireland had fought hard to bring competition to the market and the company was willing to discuss any way in which it could stay here.
