Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

That is the advice we have received. We have been further advised that a period of three years is reasonable and that a longer period or an indefinite period might be subject to serious legal challenge from people who never married. Consider the case, for example, of two neighbours, one a widowed person with an income of €1,300 per week and the other a single person with an income of €750 per week. In the absence of a time limit as provided for in the Bill, although the second person is not eligible for a medical card, the first would be entitled indefinitely to retain it. That is the scenario we are seeking to address in this amendment. I would have wished to do what the Deputy is suggesting but it was not legally possible for the reasons I have indicated.

I reiterate that the data indicate that only 5% of persons aged over 70 years will be affected by the proposals in the Bill. These data were set out in the reply to a parliamentary question yesterday from Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. This information does not come from the Department of Health and Children but is rather the most up-the-date information available from the Central Statistics Office, Revenue Commissioners and so on. The information we received from the Revenue in the context of the budget indicated that there are approximately 40,000 people aged over 70 who pay income tax, many of whom have earnings far below €1,400 per week in the case of a couple. Approximately half of them will no longer qualify for a medical card under the new scheme unless they qualify based on net income where, nursing home and other medical costs being taken into account, their net position is no greater than €298 per week for a couple, the same threshold that applies for couples aged between 65 and 70.

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