Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is an important issue and it has been addressed. I can give the Deputy some further information on this important question. There are currently 62,987 discretionary medical cards in circulation out of a total of 1.85 million medical cards. New processes have been commenced in respect of applications for discretionary medical cards. It is important to recall that sometimes there is confusion between discretionary medical cards and emergency medical cards. They are different cards but occasionally there is confusion about that. We are discussing discretionary medical cards.

Under the process that has been put in place a medical officer from the Dublin/mid-Leinster region region has been appointed as the national lead with responsibility for managing the process. The national lead established temporary arrangements while appropriate medical personnel were being identified across the country. One of the issues is freeing up medical capacity to undertake the assessments and that has been addressed. A total of 12 medical officers are now involved in the assessment of discretionary applications. There are various needs assessments from region to region depending on the specific demands on the community medical service in that region. Training sessions have also been put in place for the medical officers involved in this important process. The current position is that, as with any new system, there have been some challenges during implementation. Each RDO has confirmed that where these difficulties have been identified they have been addressed.

All outstanding applications are being processed as a priority. The number of total outstanding applications has been reduced from 3,602 last December to 1,447 on 31 January.

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