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

I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. What is happening in the provision of discretionary medical cards is simply deplorable and something must be done to alleviate the burden being imposed on families. Those affected include individuals who are very ill, some of whom are terminally ill, and many facing huge challenges and difficulties in their everyday lives. The Government, however, continues to insist there has been no change in policy. If there has been no change in policy, there certainly has been a change in practice. The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the culling of discretionary medical cards, with a reduction of more than 30,000 since 2009.

To any fair-minded person, the idea that the probity exercise of €113 million announced in the budget would not in some way impact on people is beyond belief. At this stage, if we could get the Government to accept that the policy or practice it is pursuing is having a detrimental impact, we would at least have achieved something. The issues that arise day in and day out in constituency clinics throughout the country and which have been repeatedly raised in the House in the past two years by Members of all parties and none must surely resonate with the Minister. There has to be a reversal of policy in this regard.

The Government has chosen to prioritise the provision of free GP care for all children aged five years and under. I have said time and again in the House that the easy, populist choice for me would be to endorse that proposal without criticism. The difficultly, however, is that the resources which will be applied to fund free GP care for the under sixes are being taken from children and older people facing the gravest challenges on a daily basis. For many of them, it is a challenge just to get through one day. Universal provision of free GP care is a noble idea; the problem arises when there are scarce resources. By my analysis and that of many commentators, this proposal is being funded by depriving those who need a medical card simply to get by on a daily basis.

We on this side of the House have consistently maintained that there must be a prioritisation of need in this matter. The Minister has spoken about being a proud citizen of this republic. Any genuine republic should be judged on how it treats those in most need of the state's support. It is not in the vein of true republicanism to ask a very sick seven year old, a very frail 90 year old, a person with motor neuron disease or a child with Down's syndrome to fund general practice cards for healthy children of five years and under, some of whom are from affluent backgrounds. That is simply wrong. I urge the Minister to reverse the cull of discretionary medical cards which is in nobody's interests, least of all those who need them most.

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