Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Clune spoke with authority about supporting businesses and called for a debate on the new jobs action plan. We have asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to come to the House to debate this.

Senator Leyden spoke about the withdrawal of the free telephone allowance. When one sees what Fianna Fáil had planned in respect of social protection - the €1.5 billion in cuts - far more than the telephone allowance would have been deducted if that had come to pass. He also spoke about the plight of the vintners, as did Senator Henry yesterday. We note those points.

Senator Comiskey spoke about the seniors alert scheme. Senator Conway also addressed the problems vis-à-vis landlines. I hope they will be addressed as a result of the seniors alert scheme that will be announced. Senator Comiskey rightly called on telephone companies to take some initiative in this regard.

Senator Quinn pointed out an anomaly in the third-level grants scheme for a particular individual, which I am sure can and should be addressed. He also outlined the dangers of the nuclear programme in Iran and the need to keep pressure on that country.

Senator Noone spoke about below-cost selling of alcohol and pointed out that the Minister for Finance will take action on this as soon as the Scottish case is dealt with in the EU. She pointed out the lack of joined-up thinking in the HSE, which was a very good point. The HSE has people who deal with death certificates and registration of deaths. Surely it should be in a position to marry those with medical cards.

Senator Ó Murchú spoke about the Constitutional Convention. The convention held a session on votes for Irish citizens outside the State on the last weekend in September and recommended by a large majority that votes be extended to all such citizens in presidential elections. A report is being submitted to Government. I hope that we would have a debate here on the question of the convention. Perhaps we might be able to get the chairman of the convention to update us on the report.

Senator Mullins spoke about the importance of growing the economy and jobs and pointed out the money allocated for the Garda fleet and recruitment to An Garda Síochána and the money for Cork Prison.

Senator Healy Eames spoke about action by members of the ASTI and capitation grants for schools. I am sure we will have a debate with the Minister for Education and Skills on that matter.

Senator Michael D'Arcy spoke about the need for an informed debate on medical cards. A figure of €113 million that has been mentioned. At a time of increasing demand for medical cards, it is the responsibility of the HSE to ensure that all those who need medical cards receive and retain them and that those who are no longer within thresholds allow their cards to be passed on to somebody in need. Let me set out what the review of the 365,200 cards in 2013 concluded. This must be set in the context of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report published last month. Of the 365,200 cases that were reviewed, over 301,100 or 82% of all the reviews confirmed existing eligibility or upgraded the person from the GP visit card to a full medical card so 301,100 people kept their medical cards or were upgraded. In the cases of 7,100 cases, death notices were received. A total of 5,400 of all cases had eligibility downgraded to GP visit cards,12,700 people lost eligibility and 38,900 or 10.6% did not respond. What this demonstrates is that the vast majority of people in receipt of medical cards keep them. It also showed that there are medical cards not in use when the HSE is paying approximately €1,000 per card.