Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill and the fact that medical cards will be made available to the almost 10,000 children in receipt of the domiciliary allowance. It is good news that this will happen on a given date.

The Minister spoke about reducing medical costs for children, which is very important. I hope that in the next week or two weeks the Minister will see that those who need Orkambi will get it. Regrettably, diabetes in children is also a serious problem. There are breakthroughs, however, such that parents or whoever cares for children will not have to carry out the prick test, often in the middle of the night, which is stressful and annoying. People will look for the new method to be approved by the Department or the Health Service Executive, HSE.

It is welcome that the prescription charge is coming down. We acknowledge that we introduced a charge of 50 cent. When it went to €2.50 it caused hardship, as I saw among older people in my family. Those on the basic pension had to cut back because the telephone allowance and other allowances went. There are more costs for those people. When the prescription charge went up it imposed a huge burden on many. It is coming down a little but we must work to reduce it further. We have to be fair to all in respect of health. Equality and fairness are important.

We have to be radical, whether in government or in opposition. We have to have bold initiatives, new ideas and new ways to tackle the health service difficulties in this country. Unless we do that the problem will get worse in ten or 15 years time. There is a huge budget but it needs to be better managed and we need to make sure there is equality and fairness in the system for all.

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