Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I rise to ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the medical card debacle when we resume after our summer break of a few weeks. Anyone who thinks the matter has been resolved since the local elections is living in a different zone.

Over the weekend a number of people came to me, three of whom had queries about discretionary cards that had been removed and have still not been restored. One woman told me that she rings the helpline three times a week. Sometimes she cannot get through but when she does, sometimes she is given a cynical answer. I also met a man in his early 60s who suffers from very severe arthritis. His social welfare appeal lingered on for 18 months. I was alarmed when he told me that for the last nine months he was unable to take any medication for his severe degenerative arthritis because his medical card was taken off him and he could not afford the medication. We hear the same all around the country.

After the local elections there was a furore about this issue and one gets the impression that it has been resolved. The Minister for Health at the time has been demoted to another Department and I wish the new Minister every success in his new venture at the Department known as "Angola". I shall not push a motion or seek an amendment to the Order of Business but say to the Leader and to this House that the medical card debacle is far from resolved. A new Minister has been appointed so I shall let the dust settle. I promise the House and the Leader that if serious developments do not take place in the debacle that resulted from administrative bungling of medical cards, I shall push the matter every day when we return in September.