Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion before the House because what has happened in the past three years is a disgrace. It is ironic that it is only now that the Minister for Health and the Taoiseach are waking up to the problem we have with medical cards, and it is only a couple of weeks before an election that they are admitting there is a problem. On this side of the House we have known there has been a serious problem with medical cards over the past three years as the goalposts have been moved. People in their 80s and other elderly people, as well as people with disabled children, are being sent letters of notification of a review of medical cards. These are people who had a stamp on the card indicating it would be valid until January 2016 and who thought they were safe and secure because they had the card. All of a sudden such people are receiving letters and they are terrified when they get their post. When these people's cards are up for review, in many cases the result is the card being taken from them.

Even as late as today we hear how people were written to and asked whether a child still had Down's syndrome. For God's sake, what people are sending out these types of letters? At the end of the day, the buck stops with the Minister for Health, the Taoiseach and the Cabinet, which has collective responsibility. What about the lambs sitting behind the Cabinet with their heads down and their mouths either shut or open gathering flies and dust? These are the backbenchers but are they saying anything at parliamentary meetings? What is Labour doing about this and is it standing up for people by asking about people's entitlement to medical cards? Are they all sound asleep, not realising what is happening?

The Minister for Health is coming to Kerry next week. He is coming to coming to open a few hospitals, etc., with which he had nothing to do in the first instance.

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