Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

According to the most recently published information, there was a reduction of about 24,000 in the number of discretionary medical cards between the start of 2011 and July 2013. Of those 24,000, some 23,000 were awarded a medical card on the basis of full assessment of their income. On Monday, 14 October, the Minister, Deputy Reilly, met the chief executive of the HSE and the primary care team to express concerns directly about the communications, the letters, the answering of phones, the interest being expressed in dealing with difficult cases.

This might be of interest to Members of the House. By 1 October 2013, of the 97,121 people who held discretionary cards at the time of the assessment in March 2011, 38,000, or 39%, still held a discretionary medical card, 43,000 had ordinary medical cards based on the assessment, and 17,000, or 18%, had no medical card. When that 17,000 was analysed, 2,361, or 14%, were deceased, 6,265, or 38%, did not respond to correspondence from the HSE and their medical cards were suspended, 12% engaged in the review process but did not follow it through, and 6,165, or 37%, completed the review process and were found to be ineligible for a medical card or a GP-visit card. That represents 6.5% of all the people who held a discretionary card on 1 March 2011.

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