In light of the commitments in the programme for Government regarding better public services, there is a major issue with cancer patients getting medical cards. We have been fighting for a number of cancer patients who are three or four months into their treatment in terms of getting in financial statements and documentation. Are there enough medical assessors within the medical card section to make decisions about people who have had a very serious medical diagnosis and who have provided that documentation to the medical card section to get emergency medical cards? Somebody who has received a cancer diagnosis should have an automatic entitlement to one. Moreover, such people should be allowed to provide the documentation over the next while to support it but they should be given a medical card in the short term because they are experiencing desperately serious financial difficulties.

This is a matter that affects every Member of this House when representing their constituents. At a critical time in a person's life following a diagnosis of cancer, the least that we and the Government can do is ensure that he or she gets a medical card. At one time, once a diagnosis of cancer had been made, the person automatically got the card. That has not been the case over the past five or six years. The Taoiseach is frowning as if he does not know that. If he does not know that, as a Deputy, he should know it. A county councillor would know it - never mind the Taoiseach. It was a fact that when a person received a diagnosis of cancer, he or she got a medical card but it has not been the case over the past five or six years. It is a terribly important issue that should be looked at.

Eligibility for medical cards is means-tested in Ireland and always has been. However, more than 100,000 discretionary medical cards are provided to people who do not qualify based on means and who often have a particular illness. There was considerable variation from region to region in the past regarding how discretion was applied but that was standardised in more recent years. We did a lot of work about five or six years ago under the chairmanship of Professor Frank Keane to see if we could designate particular illnesses that would automatically entitle someone to a medical card and designate other illnesses that would not. Professor Keane's expert group found that there was no fair way to provide a list of illnesses that would entitle a person to a medical card and a list of illness that would not. The report is a difficult read but one I would recommend.