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

The Minister of State made my argument inadvertently by pointing that the current qualification criteria are liberal because they are not based on domicile or Revenue Commissioners' criteria. The legislation, however, will allow the Minister to change the regime to make it more difficult to qualify than it is to qualify as domiciled. There is no guideline to say otherwise. We are to depend totally on the Minister's whim as to who qualifies for an over-70s medical card where people return here to reside. The criteria can be decided by the Minister at any time. That is the issue of concern. We should never point to the personality of the Minister of the day. It is the system that will decide this once the Minister makes the regulation. It is tantamount to conferring rights on or denying rights to citizens through guidelines. It is inherently wrong. I instance the example of social welfare where another arm of Government brought forward regulations that were inherently unfair. Every Deputy was up in arms about it. People were returning to Ireland after a number of years away to find they could not qualify for basic social welfare payments. These were Irish citizens who had worked here for years and made contributions. My concern is that the Minister will have sweeping powers as to what constitutes a residency qualification. He or she could make it more difficult.

See this speech in context