Discretionary medical card case
Deputy Daly describes a Kerry woman denied a discretionary medical card despite bereavement and cancer treatment. The Tánaiste asks for the details to be sent to the Minister for Health, says exceptional illness and loss should be considered, and invites the Deputy to copy him in.
Ba mhaith liom ceist a chur ar an Tánaiste mar gheall ar chártaí leighis agus cártaí leighis saorthoilteanacha. Tá bean i gCiarraí agus fuair a fear céile bás, agus i ndiaidh sin, fuair sí ailse. Bhí uirthi rud éigin a dhéanamh mar gheall air san ospidéal. There is a woman in Kerry who applied for a discretionary medical card because she had been refused one. Her husband had died in tragic circumstances. She herself then developed cancer and needed 16 or 17 rounds of radiotherapy at the last count. We applied for the card on her behalf and brought the matter as far as we could go. Her means were over the limit. The last thing a woman in her position should have to do is apply for a medical card. Discretion should have been used in her case, but it seems that decisions are limited on the basis of means alone. Will the Tánaiste do something about it?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy for raising this. My sympathy to his constituent on all she has been through and for her loss. If he wants to send the details to the Minister for Health, I will ask her to engage directly with the HSE on it.
As he rightly said, there are two ways of accessing a medical card. There are the means ground but, above and beyond those, the exceptional burden that illness and loss can place on one is also supposed to be factored in. Without knowing the details, one would hope this could be examined again. I will ask the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, to engage with the Deputy if he sends on the details.