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

The Deputy is right. As we age, we develop more chronic conditions. In the context of the over-70s legislation, people suffering from chronic conditions are living a lot longer. As some of the over-70s already have GP cards, there will only be an additional 36,000 GP cards, whereas there will be 240,000 under-sixes in the system. The total number is not so great, but I agree with the Deputy nevertheless. Many of those with chronic diseases are probably already being managed by their GPs and, while any health service must have an eye on resources, the numbers involved should not cause problems for GPs.