Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill, which provides for certain exemptions from charges for acute inpatient services, particularly for children younger than 16 in all public hospitals and for persons who have chosen to avail of private acute inpatient services. When enacted, this legislation will ease the financial burden of parents and guardians when bringing their child to hospital for inpatient care and will help to ensure that cost is not a significant consideration when children require access to inpatient treatment.

The Minister has also received Government approval to table a Committee Stage amendment that will insert provisions to provide for the free contraception scheme for women aged 17 to 25. The proposed contraception amendment aims to remove cost barriers to contraception for those women. This will be particularly significant for those who are just above the means-tested limits for medical and GP visit cards and those who are still in full-time education and financially dependent on parents and guardians.

Public patients, including children, are subject to a statutory public inpatient charge of €80 per night for up to a maximum of ten nights a year, which equates to €800. Medical card holders and certain other persons are exempt from these charges. The Bill will remove the statutory acute public inpatient charge. I really welcome this as it will ease the financial burden on parents and guardians when children are going into a hospital. That is very important.

I still have many concerns, however. Medical cards have been mentioned a lot in the debate. The Covid pandemic has been extremely hard for people, particularly older people. A great number of people have come into my clinics in recent months to ask about hospital appointments and how long they are waiting for them. These are mainly medical card holders. Many older people have come into my office because some doctors are charging for blood tests. In the context of the current cost of living, everybody is finding it hard to make ends meet. The issue of extras, such as blood tests and medication that people need, is becoming very serious for me. The Minister brought up the issue of dentists. I welcome the €10 million he has put into this area but I have received several phone calls from people in County Carlow who tell me their dentists are not taking medical cards. There is a reason that people have medical cards. It is important that they get the treatment they deserve. I ask the Minister to try to sort this issue out. It is very hard if you have a pain in your tooth or if you need a filling but are not in a position to pay for it and the dentist tells you he does not take medical cards. That is one of the most serious issues I have been trying to work with people on in recent months. I ask him to address these issues and to do something as soon as possible. I do not know whether more funding is needed in this area. If it does, it needs to be provided. We have to make sure that the most vulnerable people in our society have access to doctors and dentists and are not forgotten.

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