Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----and in which resources will be available to provide facilities for elderly people through the primary care system and through a universal health care system that will provide opportunities and facilities for young children, the extension of the free GP care system, opportunities for those in the middle to have work, careers and opportunity, as well as for those who are elderly to live in a country with a sense of dignity and respect. I acknowledge it is difficult to make these changes. The choices are always unpalatable when one tries to shift a structure that is as ingrained as the health system had become over many years. Fundamentally, the Minister, Deputy Reilly, is focused on cutting the cost of the provision of services but keeping those services for those who need them, particularly children and the elderly, as well as those who are sick.

I might add to Deputy Adams that I also spoke in recent days to a number of parents with children who have particular difficulties. They are aware of the availability of the long-term illness card, as well as the capacity to provide aids, appliances and facilities. One couple told me they were not entitled to a medical card as both were public servants and they were well over the income limit. While they did not seek a medical card, they had children with particular problems and sought assistance in that regard and this is the flexibility of the scheme, where discretion and weighting to that discretion applies.

I hope both the case in Drogheda and the second case mentioned by the Deputy can be dealt with in that fashion and that those concerned can be given an understanding that this is still a caring country. Changing the system has not been easy where some applicants either have not responded or the information has not been full or complete. I guarantee the Deputy that the structure that now will be in place for dealing with all cases in the first instance will make clear to people that when reviews take place, it is important that they be replied to but that on the other end, there is empathy and understanding of the difficulties that families in particular may face from one source or another.

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