Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He now increases the charge threefold.

In respect of medical card eligibility, when one looks at the service plan, one sees the difficulty is that there have been changes to eligibility and I will tell the Minister where they are. Previously, when a person with cancer applied for a medical card, he or she almost always received it on medical grounds. We now have a very distasteful problem where people facing life-threatening illnesses and receiving life-saving treatment are being denied medical cards. I raised this issue before and will raise it again. I was contacted by the husband of a woman who had a double mastectomy but who still cannot get a medical card. I raised this issue in this House and put down parliamentary questions on it. At the Taoiseach's request, I sent details of the matter to him. That is what is happening in our health service.

I accept that the Minister has addressed some issues with waiting lists but he created the lists in the first place. A total of 4,590 patients were waiting over 13 weeks for a routine endoscopy procedure at the end of 2011. We never benchmarked 13 weeks. No 13-week list ever existed. It is the first time I ever-----

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