Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a difference between the medical card scheme and the long-term illness scheme. The difficulty with the long-term illness scheme is that it does not have a statutory basis and, for that reason, it is not possible to add new illnesses to it without primary legislation, which would reopen the whole question of whether any of the illnesses on it should stay on it.

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