John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)

The principle of Second Stage of this Bill, as passed, one which has been accepted by my office, is that the legislation amends the position whereby there was universal availability of medical cards for those aged 70 years and over. The reason the amendments are being disallowed is that they essentially seek to restore the status quo and the principle, if one likes, of universality. That is the difficulty I have and in those circumstances I ask Members to accept the ruling of the Chair. While I fully understand that they may disagree with my ruling, as they are democratically entitled to do, unfortunately somebody has to make the ruling.

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