Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----in that the cuts have been directed at those on the lowest levels of income and additional sources of revenue have not been targeted at those earning more than €100,000. It begs the question as to the reason the Minister has been in government supporting Fine Gael policy all along. I refer to something I cannot understand. The Minister announced cuts of €113 million in respect of medical cards in his budget here, which has led to the fiasco all Members have experienced and about which the Minister has learned at first hand. However, Members had spoken in this Chamber on this issue every single week for the past six months, but when the Government went knocking on the doors, the people told it the same thing. The Taoiseach announced the setting up of a committee and was going to deal with it. There is a new committee, he carried out a U-turn, he was going to give back the cards but then was not going to give them back and does not know whether he can do so or whether people must reapply. It is an absolute shambles and it all goes back to the Minister's announcement that €113 million was to be cut out of the medical card budget.

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