Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Next Saturday there will be an event entitled Walk a Mile in Ronan and Katie's Shoes to lobby for the return of Ronan and Katie's discretionary medical cards. Katie is a five-year-old girl with Down's syndrome and many complications, including asthma and juvenile arthritis. Her medical card was granted based on her medical condition and although her condition has become a little worse since then, her card has been taken from her. Her mother, Jackie Connolly, has been campaigning on this case, which illustrates the appalling impact the change in policy on discretionary medical cards has had on very sick children. Ronan Woodhouse is a child with Down's syndrome and 13 associated illnesses. Last February he lost the medical card he has had since his birth in 2005. Why? Someone said no undue hardship was involved. His mother was outside the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis and the Taoiseach said he would meet her, but that has not happened and her son still has not got his medical card.

The denials go on. I have been raising this for months. The Taoiseach told me anybody who deserved a medical card would get it, but that is untrue. The Minister's statement that there has been no change in policy but only the application of probity is as skewed a statement as I have ever come across and is designed to hide the truth. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy White, stated in reply to a parliamentary question that from 1 January to October this year more than 10,000 discretionary medical cards had been taken from people. By definition, these are very sick children and adults with significant and rare conditions.

How long must the denials of any change go on? Will the Taoiseach accept that there has been a fundamental change in policy with regard to the allocation of discretionary medical cards and that this change has resulted in the visiting of extraordinary hardships on people and families who deserve much better? I have been talking about this for six months. Shame on the Taoiseach and the Government for refusing to accept what people from all sides of the House have been saying for so long and doing nothing about it but giving us empty, meaningless rhetoric that does not accord with the reality on the ground.

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