Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Senator Cox told me one day in this Chamber that it was a good thing that the proportion of the population in receipt of medical cards was decreasing because that was reducing dependency. That was an immortal saying of Senator Cox.

One of the more disgraceful aspects of this country, which has made the lives of working families increasingly difficult, has been the deliberate attempt to squeeze people out of the medical card system. As I noted in my minor run-in with the Cathaoirleach on the Order of Business, this issue is bigger than social welfare. It is about values. The fundamental value in this instance is about whether one believes we have a society based on solidarity or one based on the notion of "winner takes all". The Fianna Fáil view of the latter notion, which is perhaps even more extreme than that of the right wing in the United States, is that it takes everything and everyone else must put up with it.