Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I assure the Deputy it will be addressed and we will work with him on that. The Department of Health is working on the matter and we are concluding the drafting of the legislation. For the information of the House, as of 1 October last, there were over 1.6 million medical card holders and over 595,000 GP visit card holders. This means more than 42% of the population has access to free GP care, and rightly so. Eligibility for the cards was extended to all children aged under eight years from 11 August 2023, so considerable progress has been made on the expansion of the medical card programme and the GP visit card. I commend the Minister for Health on the work he has done on that.

On the specific issue the Deputy raised, the Government has agreed the principle and the objective. We are concluding the work on the drafting of the finalised legislation. That will come to Government for approval to publish it. We want to move this Bill through the Houses early in the new year because there are many people who would offer a room and accommodation via the rent-a-room scheme and we want to ensure they do not lose their medical cards. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter.

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