Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

During the Easter recess, Members of the Oireachtas received an email from the HSE informing us that further restrictions in medical card eligibility were being introduced in April. In the communication the HSE told us it was amending the eligibility criteria relating to medical cards by removing home improvement loans and excluding the first €50 per week from travel to work expenses from the standard medical card means test assessment. The exclusion of travel to work costs relates to removing the weekly amount of €50 allowed to cover standing charges such as depreciation and running costs used when considering travel to work costs as an outgoing where public transport is not available or suitable and a car is required. The HSE says it will continue to consider the standard mileage and transport costs when assessing eligibility.

The impact of these changes will be significant, there is no getting away from that. The home improvement loan repayments have been a factor in the qualification of a number of people currently depending on the medical card. The added restriction with the removal of that first €50 will impact greatly, especially on rural Ireland, where there is no public transport service. In my constituency there is almost no public transport service and that dependency on travel to work costs being met is crucial.

These further restrictions follow the recent legislation that lowered the income threshold for medical card qualification for people over 70 years of age that we addressed in the week prior to the Easter recess. I asked repeatedly for details of where the other 20,000 who would be impacted by the HSE's service plan for 2013, which projected the loss of 40,000 medical cards in 2013, with 20,000 of those belonging to over 70s. Is this what was planned but could not be exposed here a week before Easter but was slipped out during the Easter recess? These further measures represent another cut to health services and I deplore the matter in which this was communicated. The cover note made no reference to the information that was contained therein, referring only to the eligibility criteria for over 70s, something we thought we had already addressed prior to Easter, with the unsatisfactory outcome I have already described.

It is regrettable the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for primary care had not utilised the opportunity in the House prior to Easter or on our return to address this. I have endeavoured to raise this matter every week since the conclusion of the recess and have only now succeeded in having my issue selected.

I appeal to the Minister of State to secure a withdrawal of these measures mindful of the very serious consequences they will have for individuals and families currently dependent on the medical card.

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