Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

The problem is often that people do not apply for a medical card as soon as they experience a reduction in income. Instead, they wait until they must attend a doctor before applying, at which stage a delay is inevitable because the process must take its course. The positive aspect of the scheme is its equitability. On the other hand, it was great for us, under the old process, to be able to contact the local health manager and explain a constituent's case in detail. The downside of the process is that we and the individual applicant can no longer do so. The GP card or the medical card may be retained until the appeal process is completed and this gives wriggle-room or time to collect additional information as sometimes this may be the difficulty. I acknowledge there are kinks in the system which need to be ironed out and one of the significant kinks in the system is that the local offices do not have sufficient staff to process the files at local level. This will need to be dealt with.

The medical card system works well in the case of the over-70s and this is because it has been in place for longer, but the kinks in the system remain in terms of the overall country-wide application.

See this speech in context