Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Renua Ireland)
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466. To ask the Minister for Health his views on a matter regarding Alzheimer's Disease (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45262/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The provision of additional services for people with dementia is a service matter and has been referred to the Health Service Executive for direct reply. If you have not received a reply from the HSE within 15 working days please contact my Private Office and they will follow up the matter with them.

With regard to the automatic issuing of medical cards, it is clear that there are people with medical needs and it is important that they should be able to access necessary assistance in a straight forward manner. Greater discretion is being exercised by the HSE because the number of discretionary medical cards in circulation has increased from about 52,000 in mid-2014 to nearly 96,000 at the beginning of November this year. This followed the measures announced by Minister Varadkar and I last year, when the "Keane" Report of the Expert Panel on Medical Need for Medical Card Eligibility was published. The Deputy may be aware that a key recommendation of that report was that a person’s means should remain the main qualifier for a medical card. It also recommended that it is neither feasible nor desirable to list conditions in priority order for medical card eligibility.

On foot of the Keane Report, the HSE established a Clinical Advisory Group to develop clinical oversight and guidance for the operation of a more compassionate and trusted medical card system. The Group is continuing its work on the development of guidance on assessing medical card applications involving significant medical conditions.

Having regard to the approach of the "Keane" Report and in advance of the Clinical Advisory Group completing its work, I do not propose to issue automatic medical cards to one particular group.