Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, for coming to the Chamber to take this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health. I will keep this short and sweet. I have been working in politics for more than 25 years and have dealt extensively with people applying for medical cards while helping them with their applications. I have never come across a case in which a full-time student did not receive a medical card in the same way as his or her parents. In this case, which I encountered recently, the mother is an invalid and the father is a carer. The student in question works during the summer and at weekends to help finance her way through college because her parents cannot afford to help her. However, due to her income from this work, she has been disallowed from getting a full medical card as held by her parents and she has only been given a GP visit card. I have no problem with eligibility being based on a student's income, provided this is applied across the board and all students are assessed on their income and means. This means in the case of parents who do not have medical cards because of their income, a student who has part-time earnings should be so assessed and it should be across the board. What if the girl in question happens to get sick and ends up in hospital? This is not beyond the bounds of possibility and could happen because while in college, my own daughter contracted glandular fever and ended up in hospital on a drip for nearly eight days. In such a scenario, this girl would not be able to afford €750 for hospital expenses because her parents certainly cannot afford it. I reiterate it is fair enough if this applies across the board but one cannot pick and choose whereby some students are assessed on their means while others are assessed on those of their parents.I wish to know when the criteria were changed because I did not hear about it and I am sure many other Members have not heard about it. One cannot get a straight answer from the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS. Its answer is, "That is the way it is". The reason I tabled this Commencement matter is in the hope that the Minister of State will tell me what is going on in the PCRS.