The Government took a service out of my town that was the equivalent to two major industries. The people of Longford and Westmeath are very angry.

Deputy Bannon is not the leader of his party.

Ballymagash.

He has no input to make to the debate.

Thank God he has to run for that side of the House.

We have to make those decisions because if we do not make them — as difficult and unpalatable as they are——

The Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, could not find out about Ray Burke.

Please.

——for some. I accept that. Of course I understand that. I am a politician who represents constituents as much as Deputy Gilmore. I get as many telephone calls from constituents as he does.

The Taoiseach let down the midlands.

I know those things, but I have to say to people that if we do not make decisions in the context of the deteriorating situation, then we put at risk not only the provision of those services, but other services. That is the hard lesson we learned in the past, that by deferring those decisions we hike it over.

The Taoiseach forgot that.

I did not forget it.

Deputy Quinn was part of it too.

I do not accept for a moment that I forgot it because the complaint from the Labour Party benches in each of the past three budgets was that I was not spending enough. I recall in regard to the Labour Party's manifesto that Deputy Quinn was calling for a hugely increased capital investment programme way beyond what we are providing, which will still be between 5% and 6% of GNP next year, in line with the NDP commitment. That was Deputy Quinn's position. That would have meant higher taxes. Deputy Quinn is entitled to put that view. He put it to the test and it did not work.

Deputy Gilmore made a point about elderly people losing health cover. People are entitled to hospital services. The vast majority of VHI services — up to 95% — relate to hospital services. Deputy Gilmore may be able to show me some aspect of a plan relating to GP services. Those people are still entitled to be looked after in hospitals and acute services should they require them.

They will have to pay for it.

The position in regard to those who do not have a medical card, those with a GP only card, is that their expenditure will not exceed €100 on medical expenses per month.

Time.

No, per month. Anything over that will be paid for by the State.

There are 12 months in a year.

In the past I recall that people had to pay for their medical expenses for three months regardless of the cost before they could seek a refund.

That is just for drugs.

That was the old situation. We changed that through the drug payment scheme when I was Minister for Health and Children. As a result, that brought a huge reduction in the concern people had about the cost of drugs.

We are back in Angola.

We are continuing with that scheme. It is only fair to say that because of the difficulties we face, unfortunately, it is not possible in the present situation to provide universal entitlement in respect of all of these matters, as was the case in the past. The great majority of the advances we have made for the elderly have been protected in the budget and can be protected for the future. We can say that, and we can point to real improvements both in terms of the extension of age exemption limits in regard to increasing the pension and the supplementary entitlements. All of those benefits have been quite rightly provided to the elderly.