THE regulations limiting health insurance cover for psychiatric illnesses to 100 days a year were defended by the Minister of State for Health. Mr Brian O'Shea said that up to now there was no statutory entitlement for sufferers from these illnesses.

"Until the regulations were brought into being, insured persons were entirely reliant on the customary practices of the VHI as the country's sole provider of private health insurance to the general public in a restricted market," said Mr O'Shea.

The 100 days minimum would cover the majority of psychiatric hospital admissions. In 1994, 92 per cent of discharges occurred within three months. The major private psychiatric hospitals agreed that the regulations represented a significant protection for the public in a competitive private market.

Annulling the regulations would create uncertainty for insurers already committed to the market and those considering coming here. The EU Commission wished to see competition and wanted to see a genuinely competitive environment in Ireland It was not open to him to take an exclusively domestic view in devising regulations of this kind, the Minister said.

He was responding to a Fianna Fail motion which sought to annul the regulations. The party's health spokeswoman, Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn, said they "set us on a slippery slope in relation to cover for illnesses". Not long ago psychiatric patients were entitled to a year's cover. This was reduced to 180 days and now to 100 days.

The Minister for Health was misrepresenting the EU Commission. Its only role was to adjudicate on whether the Irish Government had the right to introduce regulations under certain directives. The Commission did not comment on the details of the regulations.

Aware, the group working to fight depression, had pointed out that the enactment of the regulations would make Ireland the only country in the EU which "specifically discriminates against psychiatric patients in respect of health insurance cover".

Given that it was planned to amend the regulations, Mrs Geoghegan Quinn urged the Minister to postpone a decision until there was a full examination of the issue. The maximum amount of benefit should be increased and costs indexed to reflect actual health costs.

The motion was defeated by 63 to 54. The Progressive Democrats supported Fianna Fail.