Marie Moloney (Labour)

I, too, want the Minister for Health to come into the House but for a different reason. I want to discuss the medical card central processing office. While I appreciate there will be teething problems in every office he opens this is nothing short of a disaster. If one wants to apply for a medical card it will take three weeks after application to even have that application registered. If the office writes to one a week or two later looking for more information and one sends that in, it will be another three weeks before it registers that information.

I am aware of a young girl in Killarney who has no income other than disability allowance. That girl's card expired in July. In fairness, the local office in Tralee processed the card and updated it to September 2012, sent it to the central processing office but as of this morning it is still not registered. She cannot walk into a chemist and get her medication. She was taken into hospital twice last week as an emergency. This girl is very ill. This morning a none too friendly officer in the Department told me to tell her to reapply for her medical card. This has been going on since July and it is an absolute disaster. Colleagues on all sides have been calling on the Minister for Health to come before the House, week after week, but we are still waiting. It is time the Minister stopped shying away from coming into this House and treated it and the Senators in it with the respect they deserve.