Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I wish to raise a matter that was mentioned at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children last Thursday, which has been on my agenda for a while. It relates to emergency medical cards. The advantage of divisions being called in the Dáil during health committee meetings is that HSE and departmental officials are available to Members and we can have detailed discussions with them. I encourage the Dáil to call divisions regularly on Thursday mornings from now on. The issue I raised with Mr. Tony O'Brien, which was also raised by Senator van Turnhout, is my experience in working to secure emergency medical cards for people. I get a great reaction. In some cases, I have to fight for a week or two - in one case it took two months - for a card. The people on whose behalf I advocate are under a great deal of pressure. For example, the last application I dealt with was on behalf of someone with a brain tumour who had also been diagnosed with other cancers. When the medical card was approved and issued for six months, I wondered whether officials had come to the conclusion that he would not even live that long.

I propose that emergency medical cards approved on medical grounds should be issued for 12 months to provide stability. The financial issues should be reviewed in that period, as well as the question of whether the health issue has been resolved. We need to examine this because successful applicants do not have the card that long before they suddenly find they must furnish all their financial details and go through the entire process again, which can create anxiety and pressure for people who have serious health conditions. This should be examined.