Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 162: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when replies will issue from the Health Service Executive to Parliamentary Question Nos. 106 to 109 of 13 December 2007. [18964/08]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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In order to provide the Deputy with the estimates of cost requested, it was necessary for my Department to obtain detailed information from the Health Service Executive (HSE). Based on information received from the HSE, my Department estimates that:

The cost of extending the medical card to all persons aged under eighteen who do not currently hold a medical card would be approximately €296 million per annum.

The cost of extending the GP visit card to all persons aged under eighteen who do not currently hold a GP visit card would be approximately €155 million per annum. (This allows for the fact that some 306,000 persons aged under eighteen currently hold a medical card and that they would continue to do so in the event of the GP visit card being extended to the under eighteen cohort.)

The annual cost per person of a medical card is approximately €1,300.

The annual cost per person of a GP visit card is approximately €220.

I would emphasise to the Deputy that the figures outlined above relate solely to the costs involved in respect of medical cards and GP visit cards and does not take into account other factors, such as income foregone in public hospitals, the provision of aids and appliances to medical card holders and costs in other areas of the public service where the medical card is used as a means of determining entitlement to services.