Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There has been no change in the policy. It has been made clear that there has been no change in the policy. What has happened is that we have had a standardisation of the application of the procedures and the guidelines and the HSE has, in fact, published these. I believe that is a good thing and I invite Deputy Kelleher to agree with me that this is a good thing in order that we can ensure we do not have a repeat of the significant disparities that have existed for so long throughout the country with regard to awarding medical cards based on discretion.

With regard to the spread throughout the country of medical cards granted on the basis of discretion, will Deputy Kelleher comment on the fact that in his county of Cork, the number of discretionary medical cards is 71% above the national average whereas in County Meath it is almost 70% below the national average? How can it be that over the years Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Laois, Offaly, Clare and Waterford have had a higher number of medical cards awarded on discretionary grounds than some other counties? These are not small differences but huge disparities. It is not fair we have a system which is not transparent. I do not know whether the Deputy and his party would prefer to have a system without transparent rules whereby people have access to services through another method.

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