Dr. Fiona O'Reilly:

The medical card process is a significant barrier, partially because the GP practices are so full and it is difficult for anybody to get access to a GP. A person cannot get a medical card as the first step. Rather, the first step to be taken is to get a GP who will accept you on his or her list and then you can apply for a medical card. If those two issues were delinked, whereby there would be a health card that allowed people to get a certain number of services but not a GP, given that there might not be a GP who had room on his or her list to take more people, they would still be able to go to the dentist, the optician or the hospital if necessary.

The other potential solution in respect of medical cards, although this is only in the policy or structural areas, relates to the fact our GPs operate private practices. They are self-employed. As a charity, Safetynet is funded. If more practices or GPs were funded by the State, there would not be that barrier. Similarly, integration health services, for example, are a potential solution. The situation today is that asylum seekers come in through traumatising transitions in emergency accommodation and do not have access to any doctor, and they cannot get a medical card because no one in their area can take them on.

Another policy implication is that asylum seekers require access to medical care when they claim asylum.

The Senator's second point was on people progressing. It is linked because-----