Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services, which are the responsibility of the Health Service Executive, HSE, under the Health Act 2004. The determination of eligibility of applications for a medical card is a matter by legislation for the HSE. Accordingly, my Department has requested the parliamentary affairs division of the executive to arrange to have this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.

I have today increased the income assessment guidelines for both medical cards and the new doctor visit cards by 20%. The income guidelines are now 29% higher than this time last year. It is intended that this will allow many more people to be able to visit their doctor free of charge, particularly families with young children and older people who have not yet reached 70 years of age.