Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have much to do in the health sector, covering such a broad spectrum, so sometimes that type of detail is not communicated properly. I accept that fully. Somebody with a GP card and a long-term illness card is better off that somebody with a medical card because there are no prescription charges. There are facts, and it is not about me making stuff up, as Deputy Kelleher argued. Numbers for discretionary medical cards have gone from over 50,000 to over 70,000. We are using discretion and doing our very best to ensure we help people with significant difficulty. We can all only imagine what it is like to have a child in those circumstances. We are working within the legislation and I am not certain that at this point in the Government's lifetime, that legislation will be changed. Both expert groups that examined the matter have indicated that cards should not be allocated on a condition-specific manner and the process should not get away from the finance element.

It is not that the system is unsympathetic, as it is very sympathetic. We are doing our best. Taking the aids and appliances out of the realm of the medical card is a major improvement. There are people who could not change a prosthetic leg before, as it would cost €3,000 or €4,000, if they did not qualify for a medical card. We must separate such issues and having the medical card as strictly facilitating access to medical services will give us a major advantage.

Senator van Turnhout also spoke about congregated settings. I may be looking at her with a smile on my face because only yesterday I had two meetings about the issue. There is new funding for social housing which is a substantial sum. Senators may think I get annoyed about everything landing in the Department of Health but this is very much an issue related to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and its delivery of housing. We are in discussions with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, and he is anxious to formulate a proposal for housing that would be delivered through funding from his Department. The support services, which are in the residential settings as we speak, must come out with a person into that setting. It is not a matter of having a house down the road for four people.

It is a bit more delicate and nuanced than that. We are now talking to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government about congregated settings, on how we start to de-congregate and bring people into communities with the types of support that they will need. The guy who carried out the Winterbourne investigation told me that the one big worry he had was that people coming out of congregrated settings into communities would become quite isolated and alone. We do not want to make that same mistake. We are in negotiations with the Department. We believe that, although it will not be revolutionary, there will be substantial movement very shortly.