Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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389. To ask the Minister for Health the number of medical cards to be provided in 2016; and the likely full year costs in 2016 if the projection is not met. [40945/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The HSE’s National Service Plan 2016 was prepared on the basis of an assumption that, in the course of the year, medical card numbers would reduce from 1,725,767 to 1,675,767. This full level of reduction was not experienced and the National Service Plan 2017, which was published yesterday, indicates an assumed end-2016 figure of 1,697,081 medical cards. The additional funding provided in the Revised Estimate for my Department, which was passed by the House on 7 July 2016, took account of the trend in medical card numbers experienced during the first half of the year.