I raised earlier with the Taoiseach the shocking situation pertaining to the removal of a medical card from Alex Coyle, the presentation of that issue on "The Saturday Night Show" by his parents, and the subsequent commentary by the Jack & Jill Children's Foundation to the effect that it has come across 300 children in similar situations, and it will have more to say about this later. Annette and Declan Coyle spoke movingly about it, and everybody who saw the programme could not believe what has happened. It would go through one's heart, Taoiseach, and I do not understand it. I am aware legislation has been published on one aspect of this but given the clear decision to eliminate discretionary medical cards it appears that some aspect of the legislation on universal primary care must be moved forward. It needs legislative change. I believe the 1970 Health Act provides for the award of discretionary medical cards. I do not agree with the Minister of State, Deputy White, on that. An attempt has been made, almost in a North Korean style, to write discretionary medical cards out of existence and say they never happened, there was never a legal basis for them, therefore, they should no longer exist. That is the narrative that is emerging. There is a legislative template but if the Taoiseach is not satisfied that is the case or he is concerned about it, why will he not bring in urgent amending legislation to ensure the provision of discretionary medical cards in cases such as that revealed on "The Saturday Night Show" and to children and adults with a terminal illness, particularly people with rare syndromes that, by definition, create enormous and multiple challenges for such children? It defies any rational explanation that we could not do that. Can the universal primary care Bill promised in the programme for Government be accelerated now with a view to making such a provision, and when will we see it?

We can look at this under the existing situation. There were 100,000 medical cards issued in 2013, 23,000 of which were discretionary cards. There are 40,000 medical cards issued for the first three months of this year. I have given the details previously of the discretionary cards that applied two years ago and their current status. It is not true to say that discretionary medical cards are being phased out.

They are. Thousands of them-----

These are extraordinary examples, and nobody likes to see them. I want to examine the situation the Deputy has outlined and that many people have brought to my attention but it is not a case of discretionary cards being phased out. It is how far we extend the flexibility and discretion that is allowed under the Act. We need to look at that.

General practitioners throughout the country are now publishing details of their patients on Twitter at #cardwatch. Many desperately hard cases are emerging from all areas of the country, and it is incredible that the Taoiseach keeps denying it.

As the Deputy is aware-----

The policy has changed, and he is targeting those people.

-----GPs have discretion to say that a case is particularly bad and he or she will not agree with the recommendation.

No, they do not.

Yes, GPs are entitled to continue a card for a period-----

It is a pity nobody told them that.

-----while these matters are dealt with. I am aware they are publishing them.

They do not have that-----