It is 18 months since I began to raise the issue of the removal of discretionary medical cards from very sick children and people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions with the Taoiseach. In fairness, he has moved from a position of total denial of any policy change, which resulted in a dramatically high number of cards being removed from so many deserving people, to blaming a systems failure. The latest phrase given to this policy decision of the Government is an "unintended consequence of a budgetary decision" which is how the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, put it today.

I put it to the Taoiseach that is some hell of an unintended consequence for thousands of families across the country because it has put families through hell and back in terms of the anxiety and the stress caused and the expense many have had to incur. Today, there was an announcement by the Minister for Health in regard to a decision which the Government says will restore some of these discretionary medical cards which have been removed from people and we hear it will be around 15,000 such cards.

I put it to the Taoiseach that the removal of these cards is going on as we speak. I do not know if the Taoiseach read page 10 of the Irish Daily Mail today which highlighted the desperate case of young Cormac O'Neill, a 12 year old born with a rare filamin A gene disorder. The family spent €850 in one month alone on his medicines as the card was taken from him. I received details of another case yesterday from the mother of a child with a very rare condition. In that case, the card was removed from a 13 year old with multiple disabilities and I can give the Taoiseach details of the case. I received details of a third case of a five year old who lost the medical card which he has had since he was two years of age. It is unbelievable that this continues.

In regard to the decision which has been taken, will the Taoiseach outline to the House how many cards will be restored? Will all of those who lost discretionary medical cards have them restored? Will those who lost medical cards as a result of this decision be refunded for the cost of medication they have incurred since the discretionary medical cards were wrongly taken from them? Given all of the stress and anxiety caused, will the Taoiseach, on behalf of the Government, apologise to all the families concerned who wrongly had their discretionary medical cards taken from them?

This matter is not as simple as it looks. The Minister for Health brought a memorandum before the Government today to approve the reinstatement by the HSE of cards withdrawn on foot of a person's circumstances where the HSE had considered that the exercise of discretion should be taken into account where medical circumstances applied.

The period covered is 1 July 2011 to 31 May 2014, inclusive. A decision was made to centralise the examination of medical card applications. Deputy Martin is aware that the exercise of the discretionary right to medical cards varied greatly from county to county. In some counties, depending on the nature of the examination, the approval rate for discretionary cards could be very high, while it was very low in others. The decision to centralise the system and to have equality of examination-----

It is inequality.

-----resulted in many families being severely inconvenienced. I am very sorry that many of the cases that were brought to light on foot of the examination of discretion caused a great deal of stress for people.

I will get the exact figure for Deputy Martin but approximately 13,000 cards will be restored to people who had cards that were awarded on a discretionary basis taken from them since the decision was taken to centralise the examination system. They should receive their cards back within the next four weeks. The question that arises is what one does in respect of ordinary medical cards for which applications are being made and on which a review continues and in cases where an appeal is lodged. The first criteria is to deal with cards that have been withdrawn that had been issued on a discretionary basis where undue hardship applied and where there were particular medical circumstances. A number of such cases were outlined in the House recently and the impact the withdrawal of the cards had on families. I have not seen the newspaper to which Deputy Martin referred, or the cases he outlined, but the decision made by the Government was to cease the review that was under way in respect of discretionary cards that had been awarded in order that people who have had a discretionary card given to them should continue to have one because of the suspension of the review process. I do not know the cases Deputy Martin spoke about but following the decision of the Government, those who have a discretionary medical card should continue to have it. I will have the cases checked. It is clear that the decision made today was to deal with those who had been awarded discretionary cards whose cards were withdrawn for whatever reason on review. The issue is an administrative one as distinct from a legal one. The point is to give the cards back to the people who had them awarded on discretion and who lost the card following the review.

This is a very serious issue in that the Taoiseach has said 13,000 cards will be restored - the Minister said something similar in his press release, 15,000 - but the bottom line is that if one looks at the HSE performance report of January 2011, there were 80,000 discretionary medical cards. The reply we got at the end of April from the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, with whom the Taoiseach is very familiar, mentioned approximately 50,000 discretionary medical cards. That means 30,000 medical cards were taken from people in the interim, not 13,000 or 15,000. What about the other 15,000 people? Will they have their discretionary medical cards restored?

The Taoiseach will have to haul in Alex.

Too much playing around with the figures is going on. I quoted from official sources - the HSE performance report of January 2011 and Parliamentary Question No. 540 of 10 June 2014. The number of discretionary medical cards reduced from 80,000 to 50,000, which means 30,000 cards were taken back. Will those who lost their medical cards also receive a refund because clearly by restoring them in the aftermath of the elections the Government has accepted that they were wrongly taken? Can I take it that all the extra costs for medication and therapy will be restored to those who lost their cards? Critically, we want to find out about the other 15,000 who have had their discretionary medical cards taken from them and who should also have them restored.

The estimate is that the cost of the restoration of discretionary medical cards is approximately €13 million. The Government approved the funding today.

What else will be cut?

The information indicates that the average cost of €1,130 per annum per discretionary card is what is involved. A total of 5,288 discretionary medical cards were refused renewal. Their reinstatement cost is €1,130 per case. A total of 7,118 discretionary medical cards were refused renewal and were replaced with a GP visit card. The reinstatement cost in each case is €880. A total of 2,899 discretionary GP visit cards were refused renewal and the reinstatement cost is €250 in each case. The estimated annual cost is €13 million.

I am talking about the difference between 50,000 cards and 80,000 cards.

It is what the Government did before the review commenced.

While it is recognised that the director general of the HSE may act on his or her own initiative to take account of an ad misericordiam appeal on a case-by-case basis to reinstate a discretionary card where, due to exceptional individual medical circumstances, a person did not respond or reply either to the review or appeals system that was going on, the estimate is that the number of cards to be reinstated is 13,300 cards at a cost of €13 million.

Yes, but 30,000 cards were taken away.

Please. We are over time.

The problem is that the Government cannot afford to reinstate them.

They were discretionary cards that were withdrawn on review since 1 July 2011. As Deputy Martin is aware, the vast majority of cards were re-awarded to people-----

No, I am not. That is a myth.

The Taoiseach should not go down that road.

When? It must have been a joke.

The number approved by Government is of the order of 13,300 cards at a cost of €13 million. People should get back their discretionary cards in the next four weeks.

The Taoiseach is not entitled to his own facts.

I do not know the ten cases which Deputy Martin mentioned but the review of discretionary medical cards has been suspended and the value of such cards should continue.

A total of 30,000 cards were taken back.

I appeal to speakers to stick within the time limits.

You are kicking the can down the road, Paddy.