Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)

The medical card qualifying threshold is not even keeping pace with earnings, which is part of the problem. These so-called "yellow packs" or doctor-only cards are a cop-out. They will only entitle people on low incomes to have free access to a general practitioner. They have little to offer the person who will be left with the cost of prescription drugs, a public hospital bed, out-patient services and other charges. The Government has promised 30,000 of these "yellow pack" cards, but not one has materialised so far. The legislation providing for them was only introduced in the Dáil this week.

The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Seán Power, in his introduction said the "yellow pack" card quota would be increased for people who were 25% over the medical card income guideline. For a couple under the age of 66 the medical card income guideline is €222. Another 25% on that does not even reach the minimum wage level and there is no commitment to try to keep that in line with any of the guidelines being referred to, whether it is the increase in health costs, in the average industrial wage or basic social welfare payments. As matters stand, more and more people will be taken out of the medical card system. There is a perception that this is the first step towards doing away with what we would call the free medical card system. In this context, it is interesting to note the drop in medical card cover between 1997 and 2005 in all counties — Dublin, Wicklow, Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Clare, Limerick, Tipperary North——

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