Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Applying for a medical card today reminds me of applying for planning permission. One applies for planning permission and seven weeks later one gets a request for further information. One sends the information in and then one might get a subsequent request. That is fair enough for planning permission, but for medical cards, people are being notified four or five weeks after they apply by text message or by letter that more information is required. After sending in that information, people can then get a further request.

I do not know if this is a staff issue. I want to say that the staff of the dedicated line to the medical card office that we have as Deputies are courteous and helpful. They try to do the best they can for us. However, there must be a policy to stall, delay or frustrate these applications. I do not know what the problem is. Are more staff needed? More GP cards are provided for in the budget, but unless there are staff to deal with the current backlog, it will not work.

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