James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

This Government promised that the vulnerable would be protected in budget 2009. Instead it shamefully took the cutback equivalent of a sledgehammer to the provisions regarding the most vulnerable in the country, our elderly citizens. Shame on this Government. The sledgehammer crashed down on essential medical card provision for the over-70s and 84 Government Deputies voted against the well-being of the sick and vulnerable when they heartlessly voted down the Fine Gael Private Members' motion calling on the Government to reverse its decision to remove universal medical card cover from all those over 70 years of age.

Commitments mean nothing to this Government. Stacking broken promise on broken promise, the Minister has now back-tracked on her worthless guarantee that medical cards would be index-linked to match inflation. Where is that guarantee in the Bill before the House? It is virtually impossible to pin down the Minister. If her word is her bond, God help us and God help the elderly in this country. They need every support they can get. I am sure the Minister of State does not share this sentiment but there is a huge sense of this being a black day in the history of this State and one with which those of us on this side of the House would rather not be associated. For a Bill such as this to be passed by sheer weight of numbers by a Government that has absolutely no regard for the welfare of our elderly, is indeed something one would hope not to be associated with in any capacity. Where is the Government's appreciation of the legacy of prosperity created on the backs of the elderly, created by their hard work? This Bill makes a mockery both of care of the vulnerable and of our democracy. If the 84 Deputies who voted against the elderly on 21 October last were now to put the health and welfare of our senior citizens before their blind loyalty to this heartless Government, the current legislation would be defeated. Universal provision of medical cards has shown a massive payback in terms of the health of the over-70s. Why should the Government Deputies vote to destroy the progress that has been made in improving the health of the many elderly people in the last eight years in order to achieve a saving of just €16 million? It is morally, even legally, wrong to deprive even one elderly person of essential medical care while the Government squanders millions in storing obsolete voting machines, the purchase of which was one of its greatest follies among a long list of Fianna Fáil Government money-squandering fiascoes.

Why should the elderly hand back their medical cards? The Government is responsible for the chaos in HSE funding, not the over-70s, who paid very high rates of taxation and many of whom have discontinued their VHI cover. The Minister has stated that the two month grace period from January to March is designed to give pensioners more time to work out whether they are entitled to a medical card. This is insulting. There is not an elderly person in this country who could not tell the Minister in two minutes flat that he or she is certainly entitled to a medical card. They earned it and every right-minded person in this country is of the view that they should hold on to what is theirs. Why does the Minister think that an extra two months' deliberation will make anyone more likely to hand over what is in essence the golden reward card? It is not a passport to wealth but rather the means to life-giving health benefit.

However, if they were inclined to question their eligibility, the elderly would face total Government induced confusion. The Department of Health and Children and the HSE have proposed five different criteria for eligibility for the over-70s. Hour by hour, if not minute by minute, the criteria have changed, with income limits of the moment being replaced instantly to the confusion of all. The current Government has no grasp of joined-up thinking and the withdrawal of the universal entitlement to medical cards for the over-70s is a prime example of the chaotic and badly thought out measures undertaken by senior Ministers and personnel.

The withdrawal of the medical card is also a direct contradiction of the stated position of both the Minister and Professor Drumm that they would promote primary care, support people in their homes and keep people out of hospital. The problem is that elderly people will be less likely to visit their GPs and more likely to discontinue medication because of cost. These patients will end up in acute hospitals, putting pressure on beds, with a penny-wise, pound-foolish Government not only failing to make savings, but increasing costs and depriving the elderly of the right to live in their own homes and communities.

According to the Central Statistics Office, people over the age of 70 make double the visits to their GP made by other adults. With 5.2 visits per annum, the cost is significantly higher for over 70s than for those below this age group. With almost all they have under threat, from nursing home care to pensions, the elderly must continue the protest they initiated after the budget and take to the streets again in outright defiance of what the Government is doing to them. They must refuse to give up their medical cards.

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