Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Following on from the point raised by Senator Marc MacSharry, it is important to bear in mind that budgets are not necessarily about cutbacks or new taxes. They are also about creating efficiencies.

Let us examine the medical budget for the ten-year period, 2000 to 2010, where the cost of drugs and pharmaceuticals went unchecked and rose from €570 million to over €1.9 billion per year. Therefore, one of the things that the Minister is now trying to tackle is getting better value for money.

I am astonished by the misinformation in the media on the medical card issue so I shall outline the real figures. Since we came to power in 2011, the number of new medical cards and GP cards issued is 253,000, as at 31 August 2013. That means that 253,000 additional people have medical cards or GP-only cards. If one adds the new figure that we are talking about today, the free GP service for under 5s, then nearly 500,000 additional people will have free access to GPs since we came into Government. Instead people have focused on austerity. Yes, some very difficult decisions have been taken but some very good decisions have also been taken-----