Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The motion before the House is simple. It calls on the Government to reverse the decision that was taken to withdraw the universal principle of a right to a medical card for persons over 70 years of age. In my long experience in this House, I have never witnessed what I saw on the streets today. We saw the ignominy brought down on the elderly by this Government, forcing them to travel from the four corners of Ireland to stand up for what they believe in, in the country they built. The deep sense of guilt was not appreciated by the Government.

When the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, came into the Chamber to deliver his radical budget, he quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt when he said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself". Franklin Roosevelt also said that a radical was "a man with his feet firmly planted in the air". The Government is doomed by its own hand. The carry-on in recent weeks is evidence of the greatest incompetence of any Government of the last 40 years.

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