Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would consider it more than appropriate, in fact, necessary, that in Mr. Tony O'Brien's position, he would have an eye on the terms and conditions of staff who work on his watch and on whom he and we rely to deliver services. I have instanced nurses but I could equally refer to his clerical staff. There was a controversy around the issuing of medical cards for a long time and the time-lag involved. Even if Mr. Tony O'Brien will not tell me, I hope that he told the Minister that there are significant numbers of staff in the service that he manages who simply cannot bear another cut. I also hope in respect of this €150 million that Mr. O'Brien, somewhere in the system, has his thinking cap on in terms of alternative methods of finding that money other than skinning public servants again. Let me hasten to add, I view medical consultants in a different category from others I have mentioned.

In respect of medical cards, there was some change to the eligibility criteria in respect of the over 70s and I understand that would result in a reduction of some 20,000 in the number of those holding a full medical card. The HSE did something that I thought was a little sneaky in changing the criteria for assessable income and, therefore, eligibility, and also in removing matters such as home-improvement loan payments and excluding the €50 per week travel-to-work expenses. This was done quietly, and over the Easter break. Mr. O'Brien has obviously taken the decision to do that. I need not tell him that it will cause difficulties for persons across the State and we will hear about it in our constituency offices but I want to press the issue with him. Did the HSE issue a press release on this matter? Did it brief the media? It was done very quietly. In the course of discussions in the Oireachtas, my colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, asked repeatedly for an account to be given of where the 40,000 drop would happen in the medical cards. We could identify 20,000 in respect of the over 70s. We could not find the other 20,000 until we got this e-mail over Easter.