Mr. Tony O'Brien:

At the moment, apart from nought to 18 year olds, a diagnosis of cancer does not confer automatic eligibility for a medical card. Following events of 2014, we have had a series of reports from a clinical advisory group. We are just working through the last of those reports which will, probably in parallel with the extension of eligibility for the domiciliary care allowance and subject to a dialogue with the Department, Ministers and probably Government, will create a context in which we move away from the financially-based means test to a more needs-based approach to the granting of discretionary cards. I hope that the issue of patients recently diagnosed with cancer will be dealt with through that forum.