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

It is 18 months since I began to raise the issue of the removal of discretionary medical cards from very sick children and people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions with the Taoiseach. In fairness, he has moved from a position of total denial of any policy change, which resulted in a dramatically high number of cards being removed from so many deserving people, to blaming a systems failure. The latest phrase given to this policy decision of the Government is an "unintended consequence of a budgetary decision" which is how the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, put it today.

I put it to the Taoiseach that is some hell of an unintended consequence for thousands of families across the country because it has put families through hell and back in terms of the anxiety and the stress caused and the expense many have had to incur. Today, there was an announcement by the Minister for Health in regard to a decision which the Government says will restore some of these discretionary medical cards which have been removed from people and we hear it will be around 15,000 such cards.

I put it to the Taoiseach that the removal of these cards is going on as we speak. I do not know if the Taoiseach read page 10 of the Irish Daily Mail today which highlighted the desperate case of young Cormac O'Neill, a 12 year old born with a rare filamin A gene disorder. The family spent €850 in one month alone on his medicines as the card was taken from him. I received details of another case yesterday from the mother of a child with a very rare condition. In that case, the card was removed from a 13 year old with multiple disabilities and I can give the Taoiseach details of the case. I received details of a third case of a five year old who lost the medical card which he has had since he was two years of age. It is unbelievable that this continues to go on.

In regard to the decision which has been taken, will the Taoiseach outline to the House how many cards will be restored? Will all of those who lost discretionary medical cards have them restored? Will those who lost medical cards as a result of this decision be refunded for the cost of medication they have incurred since the discretionary medical cards were wrongly taken from them? Given all of the stress and anxiety caused, will the Taoiseach, on behalf of the Government, apologise to all the families concerned who wrongly had their discretionary medical cards taken from them?

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