Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not make individual representations. I have the privilege, being a Senator, of not being in that territory. However, the Irish Hospice Foundation has told me of those who get the medical card for six months because they have a terminal illness where the difficulty arises at the six-month point. What happens is that those who live beyond six months and seek to renew their card then must go through the full, quite cumbersome means-test procedure. Everybody here will be aware of the procedure. They are no less terminally ill. The answer I got, perhaps a little like the letters that issue about medical cards, was quite opaque. I read it five times last night, trying to understand what was being said. The crux of it is that while those given medical cards on terminal illness grounds, rather than on emergency or discretionary grounds, are being treated swiftly and sympathetically, there should be a system where the card needs to be renewed after six months. Those with a problem are, not the many in this category who have a medical social worker or palliative care team, but those who fall outside of their remit.

I have heard of many individual cases. It is almost as if we are saying that if the person has lived longer than six months, we will penalise him or her for doing so. It is a bizarre situation when one has a terminal illness. I heard of one case of a man who does not want to face up to the fact that he has a terminal illness. They have managed to work around it but now, after the six months, he must go through all of this procedure and the family must work with him to face up to it. There is something wrong with the system. I will leave the illustrations on the Jack & Jill Foundation to my colleague, Senator Mary Ann O'Brien, but they are equally compelling. That is my big issue.