Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Deputy Browne's comments on some of the Government Deputies' contributions. I was here for Deputy Buttimer's contribution in which he lambasted previous Governments and sung the virtues of the current Government. It was markedly different from what people would have heard from Deputy Buttimer and others before the last election. It is remarkable how quickly some Deputies can sing a different song and play whatever tune is being called.

It is no harm to refresh our memories on what the Government committed to and the approach it said it would take in the context of its criticism of the last Government. Five years ago, the Minister for Health, who was the then Fine Gael health spokesperson and who was faced with a similar proposal from the then Government but with a much more generous eligibility criteria, fumed that those are the people who made this country what it is today, they raised us, nursed us when we were sick, protected us from violence, grew our food and ran a proud Civil Service and this decision is morally wrong and the people of the country know it. He stated - it is no harm to refresh our memories because we will not hear from the Government backbenchers what they told the people they would do if they got into government - that this decision was penny wise but pound foolish. The Minister also said at the time:

The Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, told us that the annual cost of a medical card is €1,650. With the loss of their medical cards, many of those affected will attend their doctors less frequently than they should and may not take their medicines regularly. If they end up in hospital as a result, one day’s care will negate any saving made to the Exchequer.

At that time, the Taoiseach stated:

Elderly people do not want to be pressurised about means tests and application forms or have to worry about their property, their savings, what they have in the bank, whether a man from Government will call to their home or if they will lose their right to the medical card.

Many of us will recall the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste standing on a trailer outside the Dáil lambasting decisions made at that time and stating how they would protect medical cards and people over 70 if they were elected to Government. As Deputy Browne said, there is no end to the amount of commentary Deputies made at that time. I thought it was a bit rich to have to listen to Deputy Buttimer lambast Deputy Collins for a similar crime when he would have been singing an even louder tune no so long ago.

The Bill is entitled the Health (Alteration of Criteria and Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013 because it is the second time in one year that the Government is reducing eligibility for people aged 70 years or over. In the first reduction in the eligibility criteria at the start of the year, 20,000 people over the age of 70 were removed from medical card eligibility. This Bill will hit one in ten people over the age of 70, or 35,000. It will bring the total number of people over 70 years of age who will lose their medical cards this year to 55,000.

There are other measures in the Bill which treat people over 70 years of age differently from those who are under it. For example, the over 70s eligibility criteria takes into account PRSI and income tax. It is based on the gross income of a person or a couple whereas allowances are made for those who are under 70 years of age. What we are finding with this second attack in one year is that many people, who are still eligible for a medical card and who are over 70 years of age, are rightly worried as to whether this time next year, they will find eligibility decreased further.

The impact of this measure on older people must be considered in the context of a budget that has been very sore for the elderly people as a whole. One of the features of recent budgets was that a conscious effort was made to try to protect the incomes, circumstances and quality of life of pensioners and the medical cards of people over the age of 70. In this budget, however, we have seen a conscious targeting of many of the payments that are made to people of pension age. The bereavement grant, which is claimed by many elderly people following the death of a loved one, has been withdrawn.

The hike in prescription charges will affect many people who have medical cards, particularly elderly people who tend to be on more medication than those who are younger. The Minister who is introducing this hike gave a commitment before the last general election to abolish the charge in question upon his election to Government. That commitment was in line with the comments of his party leadership and the commitments of many of his backbenchers in Dáil debates, as I have described. It is in contrast to what we have heard from Deputy Buttimer today. Rather than abolishing the prescription charge, the Minister is increasing it fivefold.

Some people will be particularly affected by having to pay the €2.50 prescription charge in respect of up to five items. I recently encountered the case of someone who is on a drug that used to be dispensed in 100 mg quantities. Following a reduction in the dose to 75 mg or 85 mg, that person is now paying the prescription charge three times rather than just once. That is because the drug now needs to be doled out in three separate amounts - one of 50 mg and two smaller amounts of approximately 15 mg. It was seen as one item but now it is seen as three items, which means there has been an increase of €7.50 a month. That certainly adds up in the case of a pensioner who is on a significant number of drugs. Some people are not able to absorb such an increase. Pensioners who live alone have particularly little room for manoeuvre because they are living on the breadline. Any cut or increase of this nature can have a significant impact on them. The level of DIRT charges on savings has been cut. The telephone allowance has been removed.

We need to bear in mind that those over the age of 70 are not the only people who are being targeted. Many people on discretionary medical cards are also losing out. We have heard many denials from the Government about the reality of the impact of these measures. Everybody who is involved in politics comes into contact on a daily basis with people who are suffering as a result of the Government's stealthy approach, which is gradually making it more difficult for people who received discretionary medical cards in the past to continue to receive them. It has resulted in the withdrawal of approximately 1,000 discretionary medical cards a month.

Overall, we are seeing a total lack of coherence on the part of the Government regarding what its health policy is about. There is no consistency between what it is implementing now and what it said in advance of the last general election that it would do. There is no link between what the Government is professing to try to achieve in relation to universal health insurance and what is happening on the ground. More people are losing medical cards. Medical cards are being withdrawn from the over 70s. It is becoming more difficult for those with discretionary medical cards to keep them. Thousands of people are leaving private health insurance. Some 62,000 people left private health insurance last year and it is estimated that 75,000 people might leave it this year.

I am disappointed with the measures and the approach being taken by the Government. People are looking to the Government parties to start to deliver on the rhetoric we heard from them in previous years. Unfortunately, many people are suffering as a result of things going backwards rather than progressing.

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