Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 77: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of persons expected to lose their medical card, including those over 70 years of age in the course of 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6575/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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My Department estimates that following the withdrawal of automatic entitlement to a medical card from persons aged 70 or over on 31st December 2008, approximately 5% of persons in this age cohort (approximately 20,000 people) will no longer qualify for a medical card. The estimated 5% figure was based on the best available information from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and the EU wide survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which is conducted by the CSO to obtain information on the income and living conditions of different types of households.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has the operational responsibility for the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme and it notifies my Department each month of the number of medical card holders. This is a net figure, which reflects the balance after the issue of new cards and other cards, as appropriate, have been deleted from the Executive's database. Information relating to the number of medical card holders on the general medical card scheme who are expected to lose their card during the course of 2009 is not available to my Department. Consequently, I have asked the HSE to respond directly to the Deputy on this matter.