John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I do not say that. The budget was not rushed. There were deliberations for weeks on the budget. I do not even use that as an excuse, far from it. I make the point that on the day of the budget announcement of the medical card issue the belief was created that all cover for people over 70 years of age was to be withdrawn. Nothing could be further from the truth. As I pointed out, the measure did not affect approximately 230,000 of the 355,000 concerned.

There is no point in changing one's tack because the crowd says different. I still support the Government decision. I believe it was an attempt to achieve more. I do not hold with using the names of so-called wealthy people. Such names were well quoted recently but I will say that a certain 20,000 or 25,000 people do not need cover. The strategy was to withdraw cover from people in that category and try to spread what might be saved. The figure was €100 million. Before Deputy Crawford left, he asked if I could confirm where that saving could be secured. It might have been secured by way of the renegotiation of the capitation charges. I insisted at the time that I had no difficulty in that regard in the negotiation with the IMO and the Department. Along with the reduction of overall cover of people in the scheme, that would have provided——-

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