Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Ó Caoláin asked several questions about medical cards, and I will ask Mr. O'Brien or Ms McGuinness to deal with the definitional issue that he raised. The system that we have in place for the allocation of medical cards is based on an assessment of means. It sounds very harsh sometimes to say somebody who has unexpectedly become ill that he or she is outside the limit and is not entitled to a medical card. That is why we have a discretionary system in place. For example, somebody becomes ill and has to stop working, and perhaps the person's partner has to stop working, so the family's means change or is at risk of changing, depending on how the illness progresses. People face situations like that which are catastrophic and stressful, which is why we have this discretionary system in place where people can apply for a discretionary medical card. We have panels of medical assessors to look at this carefully.

I could divide this issue into two aspects. The first aspect is the policy. We could have a debate on whether the policy is right or wrong, and we could have legitimate discussion about that. Our whole system is based on providing medical cards on the basis of undue hardship. That is our current system and we have many ideas about how we might change it. The second aspect is the operation of the policy. Is it operating in the way that it should be operating? That is a related but separate discussion. People sometimes say to me that what I am telling them is not true. It has been suggested to me that cards have been taken from people in pharmacies. I want to know about the specifics of this. Sometimes colleagues are reluctant to provide details of individual situations, which I can understand. However, if we are saying something that members know from experience as public representatives is not the case, will they please tell us? We can establish if a problem exists when we have more detail about it. I do not believe the anecdote that people are having their cards taken from them in pharmacies, but are people saying it to me in order to emphasise a problem?