I bring to the Taoiseach's attention an issue that has been constantly raised by numerous distressed cancer patients concerning their experience when applying for medical cards. In discussion with the staff and volunteers of the Irish Cancer Society, it has become even more evident with the numerous challenges faced by individuals who received devastating news of cancer diagnosis and who subsequently have to go through the process of applying for a discretionary medical card. In these extremely challenging situations, it is crucial that we offer enhanced support for those who are confronted with weeks and months of intensive treatment, therefore alleviating the stress associated with mounting medical bills and financial hardship that often follows such distressing news. I ask the Taoiseach if the Government would consider providing immediate assistance in the form of discretionary medical cards to those cancer patients for the duration of their illness.

Medical cards in Ireland are means-tested, so it is in almost all cases based on income. Medical cards are given to people who have a terminal illness. There are about 180,000 discretionary medical cards for other reasons. We did much work on this when I was Minister for Health. It is a detailed report and it is worth reading. It is over 100 pages along and was done by all the medical and other experts. They came to the conclusion that it would not be right to automatically give discretionary medical cards for some illnesses and not others, because who is to say that one illness should qualify and the other should not? Even within an illness, there are different types of illness and different levels of severity. There is the whole issue of comorbidities, where a person might have two or three illnesses. They came to the conclusion that listing some conditions that would automatically qualify for discretionary medical cards and others that would not, of the 1,000 or so conditions that exist, would not be the right approach. Like I say, I think the HSE is as sympathetic as it can be when it comes to cases such as this. As the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, pointed out, over 180,000 discretionary medical cards are currently active in the State.