Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In budget 2013, the Government signalled that €750 million would be cut from health spending this year and that medical card entitlements would be targeted. During the Easter recess in April, the HSE announced that further restrictions on medical cards were being introduced. This followed on from legislation that lowered the income threshold for medical card qualification among people aged over 70 years. This has come from a Government elected on a promise of free primary health care for all.

Every Deputy knows that constituency offices are being inundated by citizens bearing the brunt of these cuts and whose medical card entitlements have been removed. In many cases, they are from households in mortgage distress and are suffering unemployment and the extra taxes the Government is pressing down on them.

There are stories behind all of these statistics. In my constituency of Louth, a seven year old with a congenital heart defect who has required numerous surgeries and ongoing general practitioner, GP, and hospital care and medication has seen his card withdrawn.

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