Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said that taking medical cards from very sick children is not acceptable but that this cannot be changed overnight. Why can it not be changed overnight? He also said that 93% of sick citizens had their cards restored but that was after an appeals system, and that very system has many families worn out.

It is very disappointing to come in here and listen to the Minister give the answer he has just given. Obviously, it is business as usual for the Government. Its members hear nothing. They do not pay heed to anybody. They have learned nothing from the election results. Just before the election there was an unprecedented wave of contriteness as opposed to contrariness from Ministers. We saw, on the back of a public warning from Fr. Peter McVerry, an acknowledgement that there was a housing problem despite the fact that members of my party and others had been raising it here for a very long time. The Minister said regarding the crisis over medical cards that the approach to the review of medical cards will have to be changed. Nothing has changed according to the Minister's answer today. We do not need a review. A review is not necessary. The policy must be ended. Our health spokesperson, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, has prepared legislation to restore discretionary medical cards to those who have had them removed but that should not be necessary. The Government should immediately do the decent thing and restore these medical cards. Mar a deir an seanfhocal, is fearr an tsláinte ná an táinte. Having had a chance to reflect for a moment, will the Minister state without equivocation that this Government will stop denying medical cards to citizens who need them?

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