Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government guarantees access to medical care based on need and not on income. That is a central tenet of Government policy in regard to health delivery. Fairness should be at the heart of any policy. The Irish people are very fair when it comes to deciding whether free GP care for all those under six should be funded by taking discretionary medical cards from the oldest and the sickest society, which is stated in the HSE service plan and is stated Government policy, namely, that it will reduce the number of discretionary medical cards while announcing that €35 million will be ring-fenced for GP care for those under six. By ring-fencing that money for GP services, the Government is taking it from those who are the sickest and the oldest in our society who need it most.

Even at this late stage, would the Government not revisit that policy where it is taking cards from children with Down's syndrome, who are over six, elderly people who have life-limiting illnesses and conditions, people with motor neurone disease and people who have had double mastectomies? What is happening is criminal and yet the Government is saying that the under six policy is one for delivering health care. It is not, it is the opposite.

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