Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

In my case, I go about my constituency. I go to every street in Dublin South West and listen to what people are saying, and then I come in here and convey that to the best of my ability and try to effect change. I hope that I and others will be credited with doing this because that is exactly what we did. We were not afraid to do it. That is what we will continue to do. In fairness to my party, over the years we have demonstrated support for the rights of senior citizens, as we should. We are all aging — aging quickly, in some cases. I understand that and it is very important. I live in a community with a very young population, although we have an aging population too. I spend as much time as any of my colleagues with senior citizens' groups. I am on the board of the Tallaght Welfare Society and I go regularly to the senior citizens' group in Glenview and the south Dublin senior citizens' group at Tymon Bawn Community Centre on Firhouse Road — a place Deputy Shatter will know, as he almost represented it in the past.

It is important that we continue to listen to people and to knock on the Minister's door and tell her what they are saying. I hope Deputy Harney — who does, despite what some Deputies think, have a reputation for listening to people — will understand there is still a need to examine all these issues. She has a difficult job and she knows well that I would be just as happy standing here and talking for the next two hours about Tallaght hospital, about cancer services and about all the things I need in my constituency, but she also knows that as far as this issue is concerned there is a point of view to express. The Minister will always have to balance her budget and will always have to listen to the various lobbying and interest groups who have all sorts of issues to raise with her. She has made changes to the medical card proposal, and I hope she will continue to look in a favourable way on the reasonable points that are made to her.

I note that approximately 370,000 persons aged 70 and over have a medical card. I am told that 214,000 have a means-tested medical card at the standard GP capitation rate, while approximately 140,000 have a medical card that attracts the higher GP capitation rate. I also understand it is expected that nearly 95% of those aged 70 or over will continue to have a medical card under the new arrangements announced by the Government. I am sure the Minister will take the opportunity during the course of this debate to confirm those facts. As I said earlier, the automatic entitlement to a medical card for people aged 70 or over was introduced in 2001, and at the time of introduction approximately 260,000 people aged 70 and over had a means-tested medical card at the standard GP capitation rate. At the end of 2001 a further 64,317 people had been granted a medical card at the higher annual GP capitation rate without means assessment. This number has risen significantly over the years, and at the end of September 2008, 180,000 people had been granted a medical card without means assessment at the higher GP rate, while a further 216,000 held the standard-rate medical card. In a perfect society everybody would be facilitated and everybody would get benefits.

The presence of Deputy Enright reminds me that we were at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs this morning at which serious issues of poverty, deprivation and social inclusion were raised. I did not hear all the heckling that came across because I was trying to concentrate on using my few minutes constructively. We all have to participate in political debate, but where points of view are expressed I certainly listen to what colleagues are saying, and I understand that they have to articulate their concerns. I hope they respect the fact that I have to do the same and will continue to do so. When people contact me about difficulties they have with medical cards — I am not speaking only of the over 70s, as colleagues know, but all categories — I sometimes have a problem trying to figure out why, if the HSE is working according to guidelines, some people lose their medical card or do not receive one because of a small difference in money, bearing in mind that they have particular medical challenges. I will always regard this as problematic.

A long time ago I was thanked for getting a person a medical card. I told that person very quickly that I did not get the medical card nor could I. As the local public representative I had persuaded the system that this person was entitled to something to which the system had decided he or she was not entitled. This is the role of the public representative. I will listen to all the contributions to this debate.

See this speech in context