Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to support the motion. I am very pleased the Minister has responded in a positive manner to this Private Members’ motion. I welcome the fact that Sinn Féin opened up the motion for others to sign it. That is a reflection of the general support in this House, in particular from the Opposition in recent years, for progressing such issues. I fully support the parents who are in the Gallery tonight in their call on the Government to accept the motion and to put the necessary measures in place.

The situation in this regard is another example of the dysfunctional nature of the health service. Some day we will get a Government which will dismantle our unfair, unequal, two-tier health service and introduce free health care as a universal benefit for all, paid for by progressive taxation. I am a member of the Committee on the Future of Healthcare. I hope we will progress the issue of free health care in the committee.

It defies description that a child suffering from a serious illness or long-term congenital condition is not automatically entitled to free health care. It also defies description that a family caring for such a child must undergo a complex means test in order to obtain a discretionary medical card. The test is crude and outdated. The changes to the test in 2013 represented a cruel austerity cut. It meant that repayments on a home loan were no longer taken into account and a previous standard travel allowance of €50 a week could no longer be taken into account. That forced many parents to apply for discretionary medical cards, which put those families at the mercy of the State and allowed it to decide if undue hardship was placed on the family due to the illness or disability of a child. What a horribly bureaucratic term that is, undue hardship. It would not be out of place in a Victorian workhouse.

The Keane report recommended the development of a more compassionate medical card system to accommodate those with significant illnesses or disabilities. I am pleased that we are moving to that point. Given that the programme for Government gives a specific commitment to extend the entitlement to a medical card to children in receipt of domiciliary care allowance, it should accept and act on this motion.

Again, when does the Minister think he can get that legislation through? Could it be worked on during the summer months and brought in quite quickly when we come back to the Dáil?

I want to raise one other point before I finish. An issue came up recently in my constituency office of a cancer patient who had the words "incurable cancer" as the description of her medical illness. The word "terminal" was not used because the consultant did not consider that it was an immediately terminal illness, although it was an incurable cancer, and the medical card was refused on that basis. It just shows that these are the issues that we must consider regarding medical cards. One should not have to write "terminal," if an illness is not terminal but incurable, to get a medical card. That kind of broader look at the whole medical card system, as has been said by Deputy Pringle, should be considered as well.

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