Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Indeed I do not. I want to raise the issue of medical cards. In budget 2013, the Government signalled that a further €750 million would be cut from the health budget for the year. The Minister may recall that where precisely those cuts were to be made was about as clear as mud. We were informed that medical card entitlements would be targeted, but we were not given the specifics.

Like many other Deputies, my constituency office has since that time been inundated with people who bear the brunt of these cuts and by citizens who have had their medical card entitlements removed. In many cases, these are people from households suffering mortgage distress or people who have difficulty trying to make ends meet as a result of the extra taxes the Government has introduced. I find it particularly reprehensible that cancer patients are now to be denied medical cards. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, is the Minister responsible for cuts and austerity and he bears much of the responsibility for this decision, which prevents seriously ill people from getting the care and treatment they need. This is a shameful situation. Removing medical cards from cancer patients makes a mockery of any claim to be reforming the health care service or providing free primary care for all.

Does the Minister have any inkling of or interest in the impact this cut to medical cards for cancer patients will have? Will he intervene with the Minister for Health and will he say something to those people who are battling cancer and serious disease who now find the Government is to remove their entitlement to a medical card?

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