Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

They have changed in many circumstances. People are written to and are given three months' notice. There are many anecdotes going around which are not true. People are written to and given three months' notice. They are written to again within one month. If people engage with the service and engage genuinely with the letter they receive and answer the request being made for further information, they will not have the medical card removed willy-nilly or taken from them by a doctor, pharmacist or anyone else, as has been suggested. That does not happen. I appeal to people who receive a letter to respond to it. If people continue to qualify they will be left with their medical card.