Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

Will the Tánaiste immediately instruct the Health Service Executive to desist from punishing and hounding the elderly?

It has always been the case - I will finish with this - that persons with medical conditions that require urgent or ongoing medical treatment have qualified for discretionary medical cards. That practice has now stopped. Persons with cancer diagnoses and with, for instance, motor neuron disease are now being disqualified from eligibility for the discretionary medical card. I am sure the Tánaiste believes that is unfair also. I ask him to ensure that such a practice stops and that the Health Service Executive is instructed to ensure that these patients get their discretionary medical cards.

See this speech in context