Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Government could have done it so differently. There have been three botched attempts to quell a backbench revolution. There have been three botched attempts to quell the fears of thousands of elderly people. The Government could have made the savings required by a switch from branded to generic drugs, via pay freezes, through redundancy savings in targeted schemes or by means of a far more aggressive quango reduction. It did not do so. Instead, it chose to use the elderly as a tool or weapon, reducing them to economic statistics.

As Deputy Connaughton remarked, cosseted as the Ministers are in their State cars, they forgot that people are the centre of politics. They sat around the table in Government Buildings and decided on the proposal by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance to end the universal right to a medical card for people over the age of 70. The Government forgot that people are central to politics. In the US, such complex matters are dealt with by way of KISS, keep it simple stupid.

Elderly people do not want to be pressurised about means tests and application forms or have to worry about their property, their savings, what they have in the bank, whether a man from Government will call to their home or if they will lose their right to the medical card. They do not want that. There are anxious about what might happen to themselves and their families. As has been pointed out, they know, understand and appreciate the value of that little card, which is a psychological comfort to them. They know it brings medical benefits when they need them. It is the one certainty of which they are sure in their twilight years. It might not be the best of service; it might not be world-class, as we would like, but the medical card is a passport to a service. It is this psychological relief that the Government has done down. It has completely misread the situation.

The Government has been surrounded by creature comforts and has forgotten that people are central to politics. People will not forget what the Government has done on this night, 22 October 2008. They will remember that members of the Fianna Fáil Party, the Green Party, the Progressive Democrats Party and, apparently, two Independents voted in Dáil Éireann to bring to an end the universal entitlement to a medical card for people on reaching 70 years of age.

The great Thomas Jefferson said: "Take not from the mouths of those who labour the bread that they have earned." Not alone did the elderly earn this medical card but the Government told them they earned it and they trusted and believed Government, a trust and belief now trampled upon and left broken by the actions of Government. I say to the Members opposite that courage and principle is what they need now. I invite them, when they walk up the steps, to think not of me or of Fine Gael but of the faces of the people who voted for them in the last election.

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