Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

She did not answer the question about European citizens. We know that the British Government pays €450 million, as outlined to Deputy Ring, for their citizens living here who have Irish medical cards but the Tánaiste did not refer to the Europeans.

The former Minister for Finance, Mr. Charlie McCreevy, introduced this scheme and said that he was doing so to repay the people who built this country and maintained it in hard times. The Government is now taking away that automatic entitlement. The Government offends elderly people with what it has done here. It will put the decision of the late Mr. Ernest Blythe into the shade when it is implemented.

The confusion that has arisen from the Tánaiste's statement in the House and from the Minister for Finance's statement in Brussels this morning means that Deputies will be going around the country unable to answer questions about this decision. The Minister for Health and Children should be given some time in the Dáil today to clear up the confusion relating to the Government's intention to implement the decision. We can then decide the battleground upon which Deputies will have to vote on this measure — they will have to vote on this, as Deputy Gilmore pointed out.

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