Ms Laverne McGuinness:

We have given a detailed paper that sets out the medical card process. There was a difficulty with medical cards a year ago but all of the backlogs have now been cleared. As many as 97% of medical cards are processed within 15 days, even though we had set a lower target of 95%.

There are two other types of medical cards, the emergency medical card and the discretionary medical card. The former can be obtained at very short notice from a local health office, then with the GPs and back at the primary care reimbursement service where there is a terminal illness. However, terminal illness does not include people who have cancer who are going to survive and are undergoing treatment. In cases where the medication will cause a significant financial burden, applications can be put in place under what we call a discretionary medical card. There was a backlog of 3,000 for discretionary cards because we needed medical assessments for them. We have 12 medical officers in place which are five whole-time equivalents. They also do other work such as all of our immunisations. The backlog has been cleared. I can inform Deputy Ó Caoláin that I think that is where the Minister would have used the figure of nine discretionary medical cards being in play.