Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Ombudsman and his team and thank him for his presentation. I refer to the issue of discretionary medical cards. As the Ombudsman pointed out, the review process has been paused. Considering the number of complaints received, the 40 he is dealing with is an extraordinarily low number, but people have been vocal with their local public representatives about the issue because of the urgency attached to some cases. I am particularly concerned about his finding that discretionary medical cards have been granted and then withdrawn, but when he checks why a medical card was awarded, bearing in mind that every applicant exceeds the income threshold and discretion kicks in on hardship grounds, he cannot find out why, even though this affects the public purse. Can he shed more light on why the body processing these applications does not have crucial and pivotal information on the granting of discretionary medical cards? It is extraordinary that the organisation has no paperwork to back up the approval of such a medical card in the first place. This is a major concern and points to a grave problem which is manifesting itself in people walking through the doors of our constituency offices.

The Ombudsman has said he is dealing with 40 complaints, but he referred to engagement in the past two years on practices. What recommendations has he made to the HSE and which recommendations has it agreed to implement? This problem is alive and well, which is why there has been a critical intervention to pause reviews, but that still does not seem to be getting to the heart of the problem, which is a fair definition of "hardship" because people who need medical cards on hardship grounds should be receiving them. That is the source of the frustration. What has been the feedback from the HSE on the Ombudsman's recommendations?