Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

One of the big problems that I find with the medical card is that it is given for three or four years but after a year and half there is a review. Let us say we introduce a fixed term for a medical card of three or five years for all of society, irrespective of income changes, that period would be sustained so people would have a guarantee of the time they would have a medical card and would not have to worry that as soon as they got a job, they would lose it. Would that simple step make a difference? This medical card issue has done my head in because it relates to all sorts of issues such as exam fees. The problem with it is it is not just a health card. Do the witnesses think it would be helpful if the powers that be put a fixed time on a medical card and that it could not be reviewed unless the Department could prove that someone had told utter lies in the initial application, irrespective of any income change?