Health Minister James Reilly has accused health insurers of deliberately trying to confuse consumers by offering a multiplicity of policies.

He told the Dail it was 'outrageous' that there were over 256 different health insurance policies on offer from health insurers at the moment.

The Minister said is was his impression that the object of this was to confuse the customer, and he felt there should not be more than 20 policies.

Dr Reilly said he was asking Health Insurance Authority to look into the matter.

The Minister, answering questions from Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan, also stressed the need for insurers to reduce costs and questioned why in some cases to the cost to the customer of health insurance had risen so much.