Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the clarity she provided. We all have jobs to do from here on in, the first of which will be to engage with doctors who are prescribing these medications in order to ensure that if other medications are on the list, people, particularly medical card patients, will be directed to those ones. We must also engage with the companies if there is an easy fix in the context of them getting on the list. I have come across cases where it perhaps suited companies not to be on a particular list. However, we will certainly be able to take that up with them because prescription charges are essentially a tax on ill health.

While the Minister of State made some helpful suggestions regarding the additional needs payment, there can be delays. Sometimes if people are waiting for answers, particularly if there is suspicion there may be cancer or a precancerous condition involved, it is certainly something that should be dealt with at the point of access.

We have recognised this tax on ill health in our manifesto. We feel it is easy to identify who needs a medical card and why they are entitled to one. On a more general level, we should push forward with the Sláintecare recommendations to give medical cards to members of the Defence Forces who have to leave due to medical conditions and to all cancer patients. We should grant unconditional medical cards to those with disabilities in addition to, as the Minister of State indicated, expanding these schemes.

I thank the Minister of State very much for her answer. We have a little bit more work to do. I will take the matter up with the relevant bodies.

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