Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This matter is not as simple as it looks. The Minister for Health brought a memorandum before the Government today to approve the reinstatement by the HSE of cards withdrawn on foot of a person's circumstances where the HSE had considered that the exercise of discretion should be taken into account where medical circumstances applied.

The period covered is 1 July 2011 to 31 May 2014, inclusive. A decision was made to centralise the examination of medical card applications. Deputy Martin is aware that the exercise of the discretionary right to medical cards varied greatly from county to county. In some counties, depending on the nature of the examination, the approval rate for discretionary cards could be very high, while it was very low in others. The decision to centralise the system and to have equality of examination-----

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