I want to raise the situation regarding the absence of health cover for a large section of the population. Many middle- and low-income households have either very limited health cover or none at all. Forty-five per cent of the population have some kind of private health insurance. Most people who have such insurance have very limited, partial and restricted cover. A total of 42% have medical cards that provide either full medical cover or just GP care. This breaks down to roughly 30% having full cover and 12% having GP care cover. What these figures show is that 57% of the population have very limited cover. Worst of all, 13% to 14% have absolutely no health cover whatsoever. These workers and families are typically on low to middle incomes but they live in one of the richest countries in the world. That is a scandal. The facts are that the income thresholds relating to entitlement to a full medical card have not increased in over two decades. The Taoiseach was Minister for Health at the time. The thresholds are of the 1980s variety. The latest figures from this year show that a single person has to be on an income of less than €184 a week in order to qualify. The threshold for a couple to qualify for a full medical card is €266.50 per week. If they have two children, the threshold is €345 per week. For the GP-only card, the threshold is €373 a week for a single adult and €607 - which roughly equates to €30,000 per year - for a couple. This means that many households which cannot afford it have no access to even basic healthcare or GP care. In turn, this gives rise to medical neglect. I fully support Sláintecare. We are making some progress on that, but it is not happening quickly enough. Ten years were allocated in respect of the implementation of Sláintecare and universal healthcare. Those ten years will run out in 17 months' time. The process relating to full implementation has to be stepped up. The position relating to discretionary medical cards needs to be examined and improved. As a start, we need to ensure that cancer patients have full medical card cover. On 6 March 2025, the Minister for Health, who is sitting beside the Taoiseach, in reply to a parliamentary question I tabled, stated: I can assure the Deputy that my Department keeps medical card issues under review ... Over the course of 2025, we will review the existing eligibility framework to clearly assess what is working well ... This is an important step towards delivering on universal healthcare I agree with her on that, but it is 105 years since independence and the establishment of this State. Budget 2027 will be introduced in 12 weeks' time. I accept that everything cannot be done at once, but will the Government ensure, as the next step towards implementing Sláintecare, that income thresholds will be increased in order to provide medical card cover to the workers and families who do not have any at present? Will it also ensure, very importantly, that cancer patients have full medical card cover? I welcome the fact that the number of training places for GPs has been increased, but will the Government expand the process in this regard further and get the HSE to directly employ GPs in to fill the gap in rural and urban areas where people do not have access to GPs at present?
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That is all fair and good, and I acknowledge there has been progress. Of course, there has been progress in 105 years. There has been progress in my lifetime, which is a bit less than 105 years.
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I am hoping to get a bit longer than 83 years out of it. The fundamental question here concerns people who do not have health cover. Progress is being made towards implementing Sláintecare, and I acknowledge, in particular, the stand taken by the Minister in relation to the contracts for consultants. If they are paid to work for the full week by the State, then they cannot do private work during that time. A plumber working for the Office of Public Work, OPW, cannot be off doing nixers during the day for somebody else. We support her in doing that. Universal healthcare is where we have to get to. We are out of step with other states. The Taoiseach will have to admit, and he has not addressed this, that since he was the Minister for Health, those thresholds have not increased, and I acknowledge all the progress that has been made, although we have a distance to go yet. It is €184 for a single person, €266.50 for a couple and €345.50 per week for a family of four.
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The Taoiseach himself-----
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