Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

The President refused to do that and referred the Bill to the Supreme Court.

I agree with Senator Tuffy that there is an element of theft in this issue. If a person filling in a form for an agricultural grant or a person claiming social welfare makes a slight mistake, he or she is penalised immediately. However, when the Government makes a mistake, it expects to get away with it by making an ex gratia payment of €2,000, even though the amount of money owed might be far greater. The whole set-up was fundamentally flawed from the beginning and the Tánaiste has come out of it very badly. The myth Fianna Fáil and the PDs are now spinning, that this goes back to long before 2001, is wrong. The main issue was the granting of medical cards to people over 70 years of age in 2001. That is mainly where the problem arose. That was done by the former Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, and was badly thought out.