Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is certainly not the intention of the Government to restrict access to the medical card system for people who are genuinely in need of it. On that basis, as I confirmed earlier, some 250,000 more people now have access to that sort of support than had such access when we came into government. In my personal experience, in my constituency office in Galway East we have actively engaged in the process of trying to assist people in securing discretionary medical cards. We have found that in most instances when strong medical evidence is provided of a person's unique circumstances, more often than not these discretionary cards are granted by the HSE. I suggest to the Deputy that he should re-engage with the Minister of State, Deputy White, on the case he mentioned to see if it can be progressed. In my experience we have had considerable success in this area and I hope the same might apply to the case the Deputy referred to.

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