Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Senator should stick to the issue at hand. The fact is we are not depriving anybody of access to a GP without fees in this legislation. It is simply not true to say the section is inconsistent with the policy of universal access to GP care. It does not fly in the face of it at all. Ensuring anybody who loses out on the full medical card will have the GP card is entirely consistent with our direction of travel with regard to access to GP services. I ask the House to accept that because it is factually the case. We can argue about many matters but that is a fact.

Senator David Cullinane made other points about people losing their medical cards for other reasons. An example pertains to the discretionary medical card and other issues. From a rhetorical perspective, I understand from where the Senator is coming although I disagree with him to some extent. One can get into that discussion all right, but let us not misrepresent anything in this legislation. It does not remove free access to GP care for any citizen in the State.

Ninety-three percent of all citizens over the age of 70 will still retain free access or access without fees to their GP. Approximately 85% will still have the full medical card if this Bill is passed. The 15% of those over 70 who will not have medical cards are relatively better off. Some 85% of the population over 70 will still have the medical card and 93% will still have free access to their GP. These are the facts and it is important to ensure we stick to them.

I will not rise to Senator MacSharry's bait. Perhaps we will have another opportunity to talk about what people would have done had they had the chance in government or were they still in government; suffice it to say that Senators Marc MacSharry and David Cullinane devoted much of their time on Second Stage to reminding people on this side of the House what they had said in 2008 and 2010. If that is the level at which we are to debate this, we will be here until teatime and beyond reminding Senator MacSharry what he and his party said during the term of the last Government and of what it said and did not say during the election campaign. One point Fianna Fáil did not make, which point was conspicuous in its absence from the party's manifesto and any other document, was on the notion of a higher rate of universal social charge or taxation for big earners. It was in the Labour Party's manifesto but it was not a matter on which we got agreement in government. It is a little hard to take Senator MacSharry's saying he is now in favour of what I described considering we know perfectly well he was not for it until it suited him to be so. He came in here so he could use the argument in a rhetorical way against us. Let us take this argument seriously. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

No one embraces this proposal.