Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We all read the newspaper article about the little girl, Ava, who is looking for medical cannabis. I want to give my support to her mother, Vera, and the family. It is disgraceful that this little girl, who has dozens of seizures daily, is not getting medical cannabis and the Minister needs to step in and give it to her.

Medical cards are one of the biggest issues here. Senators all face the issue and I keep bringing it up but it is getting worse. When someone is waiting for an urgent medical card, the delays are the same or are actually worse. I told the Minister recently that there is a difference in respect of palliative care, on which I compliment the Minister. There is a great service for palliative care medical cards, which are provided straight away, but on urgent medical cards where, for example, someone might be starting their cancer treatment in the next week, there is a massive delay and if someone does not have the full information within three months, they must reapply. This is unacceptable. The other issue relating to medical cards that keeps coming up is that when a person applies for a medical card and is barely over the limit, by say €3 to €5, he or she is disqualified and does not get a medical card. Years ago, there was a system in place whereby someone who had a hardship case or a medical grounds case would get that medical card but that is not happening. The Minister needs to step in and the Department needs to look at this as being crucial. A medical card is so precious to people that it is like a gold card but we need to look at the people who are barely over the threshold by a few euro and who are not being accepted. In addition, urgent cards need to be given out really quickly. One cannot keep asking patients undergoing cancer treatment or any other type of treatment for further information; they need to be given medical cards.