Health Minister Leo Varadkar has admitted that introducing Universal Health Insurance (UHI) will take longer than planned.

Instead, he said he wants to concentate on getting free GP care for the entire population in place first.

His predecessor, James Reilly had set 2019 as the target date for introducing UHI, under which the entire population would be insured for equal access to a wide range of healthcare.

Minister Varadkar said today, however, that he did not want to set a timeline for the introduction of UHI and it might take a bit longer than originally planned.

However, he told RTE he believed it would be in place in the next term if the Government is re-elected.

Mr Varadkar said that when UHI is introduced, the economy would be recovering and there will be more buoyancy in taxation.

The Minister said UHI was still the vision, but he wanted to get it right, and the first step would be a single-tiered system for primary care.

This is the second time recently that Minister Varadkar has indicated an apparent change on his predecessor's policies.

He previously cast doubt on the plan to introduce medical cards based on a person's medical condition in the wake of the recent controversy on discretionary medical card reviews.

Minister Varadkar said he would be seeking a budget for 2015 to maintain services at existing levels and would also be looking for funding to allow for some developments.