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

That is what the Minister said in 2008.

Another area in which one can discern an attack on people who have medical cards and who are dependent on prescriptions is the cost of the prescription charge. On taking up office as Minister for Health, the first thing done by the Minister, with great fanfare, was the sacking of the board of the Health Service Executive. However, the other policy announcement made with great fanfare in April 2011, when no longer in opposition but when the Minister was in government, was that he intended to abolish the prescription charge of 50 cent per item. He stated it would discourage people from accessing basic medical care and could cost lives because people would not be able to or would be discouraged from getting a prescription and hence the medication. It is now near the end of 2013 and it was decided in the recent budget to raise this charge to €2.50 per item, up to a maximum of €25 per month. By any stretch of the imagination, this is a further undermining of the basic living standards of those who are dependent on medicine.

See this speech in context