Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would have no problem applauding him for doing that if he was not asking an elderly person to pay for it. That is what he is doing and he cannot camouflage it. Not only is he asking the elderly person to pay for it, he is asking a very sick person, a very sick child, who may be only three or four, or six or seven, to pay for it because that child will lose their discretionary medical card. The Minister can dress it up any way he likes.

I have never accused the Minister of changing the guidelines or the legislation on eligibility, but we all know there is no legislation governing discretion. That is the basic principle of discretion. It allows for a discretionary decision to be made. I have never come into this House and said that the Minister has changed the legislation. There is no legislation underpinning discretion. It was at the discretion of senior officials to make decisions, based on an assessment of an individual’s needs because of their illness and the hardship that would affect the person and their family. That is what discretion is about. There has been a change in how the discretion is exercised because what happens time and again is that the officials assess on the income guidelines people who had a discretionary medical card. Straight away they will lose the card. By stealth and sleight of hand-----

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