Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I begin by making a few comments on the junior doctors dispute. It is very regrettable. We must consider the plight of junior doctors. Equally, we must consider the people whose procedures and operations were cancelled. I think that we would all agree that, for the betterment of everyone, it is incumbent on everybody to get together to resolve the matter. It is fair to say that junior doctors over the years have been failed by the State. They have also been failed by the IMO, their trade union and its old guard in particular. I know that the IMO's leadership has changed, which is refreshing and welcome - it is about time junior doctors had proper representation and leadership from their trade union.

The debate crystallises a number of points which I want to address briefly. Why are people cynical about politicians and the political profession that we are engaged in? It is because there is a complete disconnect between what happens to people on the ground and what they hear from official speak, which is regrettable. The fact is that the Government and the Department will say that there has been no policy change, but there is no getting away from the fact there has been a de facto policy change. We experience that change every day of the week; that is what people experience on the ground when they get notification that their medical card has been unilaterally cut off or withdrawn. The first time many of those people hear about it is when they are in their doctors clinic or surgery. There are a number of reasons for that and there may be fault on all sides, but that is not good enough. The situation is not good for the patient, the cardholder or the doctors. When people are sick, which is a stressful situation, the last thing they need to do, apart from trying to get themselves better, is worry about the status of their medical card. For the Minister to say that is not something that he or his Department is responsible for is not good enough and must be addressed.

My main concern - I will raise a specific case in the 60 seconds that I have left - is about the discretionary medical card for cancer patients.

I will give the Minister of State the details of the case when we are finished. I have permission from this lady, Anne, to raise her case. She rang me from her hospital bed on a number of occasions. She was diagnosed with breast cancer last February. She had chemotherapy and a mastectomy, is now undergoing radiotherapy in Limerick and bone treatment in Cork and is due a second round of chemotherapy in Cork in due course. It is regrettable and reprehensible that I must raise her case in Dáil Éireann, albeit with her permission, to try to further her case. I have been dealing with people from the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS. She is at the end of her tether. It is about a medical report and her GP has furnished a detailed medical report. She is literally at her wits end and her GP is telling her that the PCRS has been furnished with her medical status. This woman has cancer.

Apart from this case, the details of which I will give to the Minister of State, there are all the other cases of people throughout the country who have had their cards unilaterally withdrawn. When people are sick, they cannot work and earn money. Some of them might have illness cover but others do not and medical cards entitle them to other benefits, for example, school transport for their children and other knock-on benefits. It is putting pressure on people. The Minister of State has responsibility for medical cards. There has been a de factochange in policy and we need to be honest with ourselves and get away from the official spin which is being put out about this because the figures prove it. The evidence is there on the ground and in our clinics. The Minister of State needs to meet the challenge head on.

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