Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was one of the suggestions the Deputy made. Regarding his other suggestion of expanding eligibility for the GP card, there is clearly an ambition on the part of the Government to extend primary care to a greater number in order that they are not charged to visit a GP. All these issues, however, would have to be considered in a budgetary context. What the Government has clearly signalled through the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is that we need to develop a more coherent policy in this area which would embrace access not only to medical care, as Deputy Mattie McGrath says, but also to the kinds of supports carers need. This is a range of supports, and they have not been adequately delivered through the existing services, good as they have been for many years. This is why the Minister of State took the time and effort to ensure that the input of people such as the associations Deputy Mattie McGrath represents, but also individual carers, would be brought to bear on designing a long-term system which would be statutorily based, so it would be an entitlement set out in law.

See this speech in context