James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I doubt it very much. Inflation for the current medical card system has been positive, but it has not changed in the last couple of years. We need to find out how we have arrived at a situation where the threshold has been set at little over half the minimum wage for the other medical card. If one has the temerity in this country to work, one does not get a medical card. The Minister has previously said that she is after millionaires with this measure. Gardaí, nurses and others are certainly not millionaires.

What will happen to those in nursing homes? The Minister had said that she will reduce tax relief on nursing homes from 41% to 20% after January 2010. Is that gone now?

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