Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. It is welcome that the postcode lottery will be a thing of the past but it does not solve the bigger question. It is a crazy situation that families have to continue to apply for a discretionary medical card. These are permanent disabilities. As the Minister of State knows, they are not disabilities that will disappear. I ask that once a medical card is granted, it should be allowed to continue so it will give those families and parents certainty.

Where we have somebody who may exceed the income threshold for the medical card, and I am speaking about someone like Darragh who needs to spend €16,000 every two years, it requires a lot of income to be able to do this. We are not providing the incentive for people to go into the workplace if they know they are going to have to come up with this level of funding. We as a society want those with a disability to play their full part and we have to ensure we have a health system that is designed to support it. There needs to be a complete review not just of the postcode lottery but about how we can help each individual child and as they grow into adulthood that we can provide them with the necessary limbs that they are not put out of pocket to the extent they are at present and that they can continue to play a very strong role in our communities.