Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy mentioned medical cards and the Government made a decision this year to give free GP cards to those under five. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy White, is dealing with this, and the parents of 240,000 children will benefit. We are moving to a point where every person in the country will be entitled to GP coverage, as we approach the time to introduce universal health insurance from 2016.

There is major restructuring going on and it is in the interest of extracting costs but not lessening the quality of service. It is about patient care and seeing that it can be delivered. The group system introduced by the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, is far more effective within the regions, where hospitals exist so that they can give the best for all the services to the patients, which must be the first priority.

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