Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

An issue arose with a conflict of interest about the awarding of a measure of work to a company associated with the former chairman. When this was brought to the attention of the Minister, it was dealt with seriously and the chairman resigned. I understand Mr. John Killeen has assumed the role of interim chairperson of the board. I answered that question for Deputy Adams last week.

As Deputy Adams will be aware, the current legislative base for the issuing of a medical card is the Health Act 1970. What it is concerned with is undue hardship which is defined with reference to household means. When a person applies for a medical card, the question asked is if there is undue hardship based on the household means. If a person is ruled out of receiving a medical card on that basis, then one then has to see how much discretion could apply to deal with a particular undue hardship. That was, however, implemented in a very uneven fashion and, accordingly, in an unfair fashion. In some places discretionary cards were issued with very little analysis and in others with very stringent analysis. The equalisation of that process resulted in many thousands of people being severely affected.

The Minister has asked the clinical panel to examine the setting out of a policy framework that will take account of medical conditions as a method for having access to medical facilities. In fact, the Health Act 1970 does not specifically refer to medical cards but to the issue of access to medical facilities based on undue hardship, taking into account household incomes.

The Government’s decision today is clear. All those who lost the discretionary card awarded to them on the basis of the central review from July 2011 will have those cards restored on an administrative basis. They should have them back within the next four weeks. That means that people who have lost a medical card awarded on discretionary grounds because of exceptional medical issues will have those cards restored to them.

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