John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I call for debate on the way we do business. We are doing nothing to help the people in this country to access the public service. We established the HSE to replace what I considered to be a working health board system. It has been a disaster. We established Irish Water to replace the operation of the water system by county councils. They did a good job, but investment in the system when we had money was lacking by previous Governments. We also established the PCRS to replace the medical card system which worked very well at a local level. When all of them failed we blamed communications. We set up helplines. Yesterday I listened to "Liveline" and heard that Irish Water has nice people to deal with the public, but they have no solutions and cannot solve problems. We set up helplines for the HSE and had the same outcome. We set up helplines, even an Oireachtas helpline, for the PCRS.

When politicians contact the PCRS to discuss people's difficulties in accessing medical cards we get the same response time and again. I am aware of hundreds of cases which are exactly the same, and involve people who are the subject of a discretionary medical card and will be corresponded with in the near future. There is nothing more than that. A person who applies for a medical card and is asked for further information is given 21 days to provide it, and when he or she provides it another 21 days elapses before the HSE examines the information. If there is something wrong there is a further delay of 21 days.

I know of one man, who is a mature student in college, who has been waiting for a medical card for a year and is surviving on funds from the St. Vincent de Paul in Dublin. It is outrageous. It is important that we have a debate on the way we do business. Not everything is down to communications problems. The problem is that we changed systems which worked to those which do not. We need to debate all these issues.