Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Anyone who knocked on doors over the summer months while canvassing or who held regular clinics will have met a substantial number of people who had either lost their medical card in recent weeks or who are likely to do so. Anecdotally, it was clear that there was a massive change in how medical cards, and in particular discretionary cards, were being allocated. The motion, which I am glad to support, underlines this fact. The cold statistics, which we all have, indicate a reduction in these cards from 80,524 at the start of 2011 to 63,126 at the end of 2012 and to 54,984 after the first seven months of this year, which is a huge decrease. Many people every month are losing discretionary medical cards. I dislike the word "discretionary" as it sounds like a luxury or something extra. It is anything but. For many families, it is essential to ensure that they or their loved ones get the treatment they deserve and quite plainly need.

To illustrate this point, I will give an example. Bryn Bailey is a young boy of six years of age from my constituency. When his card expired he was refused the discretionary medical card even though his circumstances were worse than when it was granted. Only on appeal and after ferocious lobbying by public representatives for four months did he even receive the six month emergency card, which is a mere stop gap. He was in intensive care in hospital when this emergency six month card was approved. He is still in hospital four weeks later. His parents will have to go through this process again when they should be left to concentrate on his care. Bryn's parents are not looking for cards for themselves but for Bryn who received the card initially on discretionary grounds. Young Bryn faces challenges in his young life we can only begin to imagine. Among other things, he suffers from epilepsy, spastic quadric paresis, mitochondriaI disorder, global developmental delay, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, precocious puberty, chronic constipation, hypothermia, microcephaly and right renal calculi. He has no means of communication, no use of his arms or legs and is wheelchair dependent. His parents have had to make huge sacrifices to support and care for him. He requires 24 hour care seven days per week. His parents are his carers. They do absolutely everything, from feeding and bathing to physiotherapy for him. They had to move to a bungalow in 2011 in order to care for Bryn safely. The rent they receive from their old home does not cover the mortgage on this bungalow. They need to adapt their car so as to be able to lift Bryn in and out as he now weighs more than 32 kg. Bryn needs countless medications and equipment, which costs thousands of euro annually. His card would cover his frequent visits to the GP, outpatient and inpatient visits, procedures and his wheelchair, on which he will depend for the remainder of his life.

The application to the HSE is accompanied by dozens of letters from doctors, consultants, Bryn's school and so on, all of which contain the message, "Please give this young boy a medical card." Bryn is an incredible young man who is battling daily with many conditions. His parents are the type of parents we would all aspire to be, doing all that they can to help him. I defy anyone to tell me that he does not deserve a medical card; that he and his parents do not deserve that assistance, which would require very little effort from the authorities.

Bryn is not the only one in this situation. There are countless others like him and his family who are truly struggling and relied on the medical card. Now that it has been withdrawn they do not know what to do. The Government made a conscious decision to target these cards even though it was aware that many, indeed the bulk of those who would lose these cards, had received them on the basis of clinical evidence and a clinical need. This is needless bullying on the part of the Government of the sick and the vulnerable. It needs to halted now. People such as Bryn Bailey should not be deprived of their discretionary medical cards.

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