I am talking about the record of the Minister for Health and I am also trying to get answers from the Taoiseach to questions which I have asked three weeks in a row. The Ombudsman says the files are missing.

I raised this with the Taoiseach and while officials from his office got in touch with my office, I am still awaiting a reply on this matter.

I welcome today's announcement and commend those citizens who fought to achieve this U-turn. There are, however, questions the Taoiseach has not answered and which the Minister is not available to answer. Will those citizens adversely affected through the removal of their medical cards be compensated for the hardship and costs they endured as a result? Will he confirm the administrative cost of this change will not be taken from front-line services? Given the confusion and distress caused by his Government’s handling of this entire issue, will he state clearly that everyone who needs a medical card will get one? Will he agree this embarrassing U-turn is further evidence that his Minister and Government are making up policy as they go along and that the Minister for Health should go?

I think it is a case of the extent of the impact on families being recognised by the Government. It is not all perfect by any means.

The Taoiseach only realises that now.

It has been going on for a year and a half.

We recognise, following the centralising of the medical card system, that the inequality in the level of discretionary cards awarded was higher is some parts of the country than in others. In other words, some counties had a very high level of discretionary cards awarded while others did not. In the centralising of that system, clearly significant numbers of families where there were children, in particular, with complicated medical circumstances were very badly stressed.

This has been the case for the past two years.

It has been for over two years now.

I regret that very much.

The decision made by the Government today is to restore discretionary medical cards that were withdrawn on review from July 2011 to May 2014. It will cost €13 million but will not be taken, as the Deputy put it, through a reduction in further front-line services. The Government decided today that this will be dealt with later.

It is also true that between July 2011 and May 2014 approximately 10,000 discretionary medical cardholders did not respond to or complete the review process. Neither did approximately 4,500 discretionary GP cardholders. I do not know the numbers at this stage who may qualify under that process. The Minister for Health has no objection at all to coming into the House to give details of the individual numbers if Deputy Adams wishes to put down a public notice question. I am sure the Ceann Comhairle may in time reflect on that.

The important point here is the Government has made a decision to restore those discretionary medical cards that were withdrawn on review from people. They should have those cards returned to them in the next four weeks.

Some of them.

The clinical panel set up by the Minister will continue its work on the assessment of the medical circumstances that will allow for people to avail of medical facilities based on medical grounds. That is an area in which we all can have an input in the time ahead.

The Taoiseach has still not answered my question on the missing files on discretionary medical cards or on the resignation of the former chair of the west and north-west hospitals group.

Coming back to the issue of medical cards, that was a Cabinet decision. While we think the Minister should go, men, mainly, sat around a table, decided upon this and it is then explained away as an unintended consequence.

Like an army council meeting.

I do not genuinely understand how, when the decision was made to remove medical cards, someone did not have the wit or the social conscience to ask what the likely consequences would be. Will the Taoiseach explain how this Cabinet decision was made? Similar decisions were made to take away allowances from people with disabilities, for example. There is all sorts of confusion about the figures. The Minister spoke about 15,300 people being affected. The Taoiseach spoke about 13,000, while Mr. John Hennessy, director of primary care, quoted a figure of 30,000 and the Minister of State, Deputy White, 50,000. A while back, the figure used to be 80,000. Will everyone who needs a medical card get one?

The restoration of some medical cards has been described as a temporary decision. Will the Taoiseach explain what this means?

I answered the Deputy’s question last week in respect of the resignation of Mr. Daly from the west and north-west hospitals group. I stated then that after this was brought to the Minister’s attention, he was dealing with it in a very serious fashion.

Why did he resign? It was the Minister who appointed him and defended him.

An issue arose with a conflict of interest about the awarding of a measure of work to a company associated with the former chairman. When this was brought to the attention of the Minister, it was dealt with seriously and the chairman resigned. I understand Mr. John Killeen has assumed the role of interim chairperson of the board. I answered that question for Deputy Adams last week.

As Deputy Adams will be aware, the current legislative base for the issuing of a medical card is the Health Act 1970. What it is concerned with is undue hardship which is defined with reference to household means. When a person applies for a medical card, the question asked is if there is undue hardship based on the household means. If a person is ruled out of receiving a medical card on that basis, then one then has to see how much discretion could apply to deal with a particular undue hardship. That was, however, implemented in a very uneven fashion and, accordingly, in an unfair fashion. In some places discretionary cards were issued with very little analysis and in others with very stringent analysis. The equalisation of that process resulted in many thousands of people being severely affected.

The Minister has asked the clinical panel to examine the setting out of a policy framework that will take account of medical conditions as a method for having access to medical facilities. In fact, the Health Act 1970 does not specifically refer to medical cards but to the issue of access to medical facilities based on undue hardship, taking into account household incomes.

The Government’s decision today is clear. All those who lost the discretionary card awarded to them on the basis of the central review from July 2011 will have those cards restored on an administrative basis. They should have them back within the next four weeks. That means that people who have lost a medical card awarded on discretionary grounds because of exceptional medical issues will have those cards restored to them.

It will be only half of them.

The cost of that will be €13 million, which the Government approved this morning.

That is the first figure the Taoiseach has had right in a long time.