Mr. John Hennessy:

I will call on colleagues to address some of the points that were raised. First, I acknowledge the gratifying complimentary remarks on the medical card system. It was an area that was in a controversial place for quite some time. Hopefully, we are coming out of that.

On the over-70s medical card and the issue of discretion, I might ask colleagues to comment. My understanding is that there is no discretionary provision in the over-70s medical card scheme. One either meets the gross eligibility criteria, or one does not. There is no question of discretion being applied.