Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wonder whether any of our guests have encountered a case that concerns means-testing for medical cards. I can say the means-testing on the social protection side is okay and fairly recently, the fair deal scheme was changed to allow people to rent out their homes. Recently I encountered a case where a woman was availing of the rightsizing scheme, which is a very beneficial scheme for both the person rightsizing and the family who can benefit from having a three-bedroom house or whatever. The disregard for savings and assets for the medical card is only €36,000 so, naturally, when a person is disposing of the previous property to the council, under the rightsizing scheme, then the medical card is at risk even though the move is a significant change in lifestyle. To be fair, on the State pension side there is an exception to the State non-contributory pension as a person can have up to €190,000, where the property has been disposed to find more suitable accommodation. That is exempt but there is an issue with the medical card. I raise this issue as part of our broad consideration of how these things all interact.