Denis Landy (Labour)

I ask the Deputy Leader to ask the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, to return to the House to follow up on the discussions we had with him and to address the questions put to him on the day in question. He has not addressed them thus far. My colleague, Senator Marie Moloney, raised with him the difficulties within the central processing unit for medical cards. Responsibility for processing has been centralised, with responsibility having been transferred to Dublin from county clinics

in order to provide a better service to medical card recipients. Unfortunately, the outcome is the opposite. It is with great regret that I am obliged to ask for the Minister's return to this House. While both this House and the Lower House are very good at dealing with macro issues, Members sometimes must deal with micro issues. This morning, I received information from a constituent with spina bifida, whose medication costs €390 weekly. Having visited his doctor last Friday, he was informed the doctor could not see him. This was because a day earlier, that patient and 14 others were struck off from their GP's general medical services, GMS, list without any notification to any of them. This is an absolute disgrace. Moreover, when in this House, the Minister gave an assurance to Members that this issue would be dealt with and applications would be processed. What actually happened is the Minister offered to deal with the cases about which the Senator involved had a concern, which is unacceptable. Thousands of people are waiting for medical cards to be processed. The individual to whom I referred sent in his renewal application last April and the card expired in June. We are almost in December and without any notification or opportunity to appeal, he was struck off. He now faces a bill of €390 per week for medication-----