Seanad debates

Friday, 24 July 2020

Health (General Practitioner Service and Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages

 

10:00 am

Photo of Jerry ButtimerJerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On section 6, Senator Conway made a very telling contribution in his Second Stage speech about what the medical card confers on recipients. We need to do a further piece of work on the packages we can bring with that. I hope that in a further debate on health we may be able to embrace what Senator Conway spoke about in terms of the medical card. It is that passport. The Minister spoke about the importance of teenagers and those under six years of age. Our world has changed since 1970. Young people and teenagers are at that point now where life has evolved from when we began the medical card system. I am asking the Minister to look at that age group. There are myriad issues going on their lives in terms of puberty, new schools, new subjects, sexuality; one could go on. The passport the medical card provides is something we should develop and put a suite of packages around. I hope we can do that.

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