On 10 November last I raised the case of Una, who is a 66-year-old pensioner. Despite working all her life she is in receipt of a non-contributory State pension and she has been refused a medical card because she receives a net income of €1 per week on top of her pension for the rent of a field. Her next-door neighbour gets €11 per week extra because the neighbour is in receipt of a contributory State pension and qualifies for the medical card. This anomaly arises because the income limits for the medical card have not increased since 2005. The basic rate of social welfare in that period has gone up by €71.20 and Una has been denied a medical card because of an additional income of €1. At the time I asked the Taoiseach when the medical card income limits would be revised and he gave a commitment to take it up with the Minister for Health. I would like the Taoiseach to update the House on when we will see modern and updated income thresholds for the medical card.

The nature of any means test is that there will always be people who are just a few euro above the threshold. No matter where the threshold is set that will unfortunately always be the case. I acknowledge the point the Deputy makes, that the income limits have not increased in a very long time and have not taken account of inflation or rising incomes. However, the number of people who qualify for a full medical card is 2.095 million and an additional 535,000 people qualify for GP visit cards. Money was provided in the budget to increase the income limit with respect to GP visit cards and the person the Deputy mentioned would qualify once they are implemented, at least for a GP visit card, but that is under discussion with the Irish Medical Organisation.