Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the increased allocation of €104 million for the PCRS and community demand-led schemes, by their nature they are demand-led and therefore it is difficult to assess the final budgetary outturn. The difficulty I have with this is that we seem to be of the view that discretionary medical cards are being reduced even though that is stringently denied by the Minister, the HSE, the Department and everybody else on that side, but from our interpretation of everything that is being said to us by our constituents, debates in the Dáil and replies to parliamentary questions by the Department and the HSE, there is no doubt in my mind, and that of many organisations that advocate for people with long-term illnesses and disabilities, that there is a reduction in the number of discretionary medical cards being granted. I would safely say there is an aggressive campaign by the HSE to rein in the number of discretionary medical cards being granted and I am concerned about that.

As Deputy Ó Caoláin pointed out, a proposal in the budget for 2014 outlines a probity charge or savings of €113 million. I am beginning to wonder does anybody know what is happening any more in terms of medical cards, particularly discretionary medical cards. The continued denials by the HSE, the Minister and the Department versus what I would say everybody in this committee views to be the contrary in terms of an aggressive approach to reduce the number of discretionary medical cards leads me to believe that this particular figure was targeted. It was clear from early on that with the increase in the number of people qualifying because of income eligibility, there was going to be an overspend but, on top of that, the Minister reined in quite aggressively the overspend by targeting discretionary medical card holders. That is clear when one notes this figure.