Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I shall not shout like the Senator. I wish to follow up on the views expressed by Senators Kelly and MacSharry regarding the welcome return of discretionary medical cards. The Jack and Jill families feel greatly relieved by their return. There is no point backdating and asking whether people have kept their receipts because those options will not happen.

Like Senator MacSharry, I wonder what will happen to the sick children of tomorrow. What will happen if a baby in need of palliative care is born next week? Parents who are suffering anguish and grief will have to go down the same excruciating route of paperwork in order to get a medical card for their baby.

This morning I spoke to the head liaison nurse in the Jack and Jill Foundation. She wondered about the expert panel of consultants who will work for a year on the conditions and illnesses that will be discussed and put in a report in order to help us form the legislation next year for the new medical card system. There is no nurse on the panel - not one nurse. For example, there are 300 Jack and Jill babies who have 110 different life-threatening illness. Along with the consultants, we should have real people on the expert panel.

The return of the discretionary medical card is welcome but it will cost €13 million of new money which must be got elsewhere. We know that we do not have new money. Therefore, it interested me this morning to see that the Royal College of Nursing congress, being held in Liverpool today, has recommended that free GP visits be stopped in England. Also, the National Health Service, operated across the water, will have a deficit of £30 billion - a black hole - by the end of the decade. What are we doing giving everyone under six years of age free GP care before we have ourselves sorted? Let us assume it costs £10 to visit a GP in England. To echo what has been said by Senators Kelly and MacSharry, I ask the Leader to keep medical cards on the agenda and for the Minister to come in here for a debate on the matter.