Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I was rising to speak about medical cards also.

Since I got elected to the Seanad the most controversial issue - it keeps coming up time and again - is medical cards. While I appreciate that almost half the population of Ireland have medical cards there are still many people who have had their discretionary cards removed and I, for one, do not agree with that.

I read in the newspaper the other day that a parent got a letter asking whether her child with Down's syndrome still had Down's syndrome. The person who wrote that letter should be sacked from her job because she knows nothing about health issues if she thinks that Down's syndrome will go away or that it is not a lifelong illness.