An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Cathy Bennett (SF), Cavan-Monaghan

It is horrible to see people who are sick endure financial hardship. It is right that we have mechanisms such as the medical card, discretionary emergency medical card and GP visitor card. However, a callous oversight by the Government has been a failure to increase related income thresholds for those under the age of 69 for more than two decades. For two decades, almost one in three people was covered. Today, the same number of people have medical cards as did at that stage, despite a population increase of more than 26%. Can the Taoiseach tell me the reason for that? Despite inflation running at 28% since 2006, eligibility limits for medical cards have not increased. I ask that the Taoiseach consider this in next week’s budget.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29