Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá áthas orm deis a bheith agam an t-ábhar seo a thógáil anseo sa Dáil.

There are 3,000 people living on our offshore islands. It is a very small, but valuable population. There are basic GP services on most of the islands with reasonably large populations, but for all other medical services, islanders must go to the mainland. This imposes all sorts of challenges. For example, if an islander has to be at an early appointment in the likes of Galway or Letterkenny, it often means leaving the night before and staying in a guesthouse overnight. If the patient has to be accompanied by someone, it means two people must do that. If it is a child going to Dublin, it can mean two overnights – one to get there and the other to get back. I am not even talking about the time spent in the hospital. It might only be a day appointment, but that would still require the parents and the child to overnight. That is a lot of extra cost.

It is estimated that the average cost of living on an island is 33% higher than it is on the mainland. Over the years, schemes were introduced to recognise this well-recognised reality. For example, islanders pay cheaper car tax because their cars cannot go on the mainland. In most cases, they have to keep second cars. Islanders get an extra allowance under certain long-term welfare payments, for instance, the State pension, the invalidity pension and so on.

What we are seeking is that, when the assessment is carried out, a considerable allowance be built into the calculation to account for the extra costs associated with living on an island. This would be easily ascertained, as the health services know the addresses of everyone living on the islands.

An island GP wrote to me, and maybe she is right. She believes that every single person who is actually resident on an offshore island should be automatically entitled to a medical card. As she states, life on an offshore island has a multitude of difficulties and hardships and anyone needing medical attention off the island has to endure a long journey and often an overnight stay or two even if it is only for a day appointment, and is not guaranteed to get home as planned if the weather changes.

For these myriad reasons, if we could get the Government to take the big jump and do the obvious and simple thing of giving everyone on an offshore island a medical card, it would save on a great deal of administration and calculation, as many of the 3,000 already have medical cards. If that is too big a jump to take in one go, then the alternative is to build into the calculation a considerable allowance so that what is reflected is not people’s nominal incomes – it is 33% dearer to live on an offshore island – but their disposable incomes, which are much lower than is the case on the mainland.

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