Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Will she confirm to the House that until such legislation is passed and enacted, all over 70s have a legal entitlement to hold a medical card and the HSE does not have any legal power to take the medical card from them or commence any process of means testing which would anticipate the passage of the legislation?

My other question concerns legislation that was promised by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in July of this year. At that time the European Court of Justice made a decision on the way in which Ireland is operating environmental impact assessments. It made the decision in the context of a case that was taken about a wind farm in Derrybrien, County Galway. Following the decision, the Minister stated there was what he called a lacuna in Irish planning legislation, which he had identified before entering Government, and that he intended to bring in legislation to deal with it. I have been looking through the Government legislation programme and I cannot find any reference to a lacuna.

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