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

No matter what effort the Minister of State may employ, he cannot discount the fact that there has been a reduction in the number of discretionary medical cards. The Minister acknowledged it during his last engagement with the health committee when he stated that discretionary cards were no longer being granted to cancer patients in the same way as previously. Ms Laverne McGuinness, a senior representative of the HSE, also admitted that the number of people on discretionary medical cards had decreased. How does the Minister of State square the circle? The reality is that we are dealing with people who are victims of the new assessment, policy or whatever. People are suffering the loss of medical cards on which they depended. We want to see those cards restored.

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