Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think there is a need to extend the scheme. There are a number of conditions, including Crohn's disease and colitis where people have lifelong conditions involving ongoing medical costs. It is strange to see the HSE recommending that people should apply for a discretionary medical card given the fiasco of the past couple of years with discretionary medical cards. The long-term illness scheme would provide relief for those many people. There are also people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease who have ongoing costs that could be covered by the scheme if the scheme was brought up to date and modernised. It would be of great benefit to those people. Rather than having to put them through the process of being means-tested through the medical card system, their conditions could be looked at and the benefit from the scheme could come from there. It should be reviewed and the list of conditions should be increased.

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