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

They are being assessed under the income guidelines and a letter is written to the applicant informing them that they no longer qualify. Maybe the Minister has read none of those letters. I have read many of them and we have presented many individual cases to this House. It has been discussed continually on the national airwaves and the Minister knows it as well as I do. There were 85,000 discretionary medical cards in the system and there has been a rapid reduction in that number. The Minister tells me that is because most of those people went on to full medical cards. A certain percentage went on to full medical cards but equally there are many who will fall ill on a continual basis. It is not as if the population’s health status has changed and no one is being born with a disability or no elderly person will develop a chronic illness and not qualify for a medical card under the income guidelines. They do not now get them on a discretionary basis. There is no way to dress that up.

When I am asked whether I and my party will support the under-fives, I say that we will welcome a roll-out of universality if it is sustainable and fair. I find it very hard to stomach what the Minister says is fair when he asks the sickest in our society to pay for universal access to GP care for under-fives-----

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