Brian Stanley urges restoration of free blister packs before Christmas

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. It's a very important issue, Minister, and I'm glad you're here as the Senior Minister for Health to address this. We're having this conversation in the context of us being just days away from Christmas, and, you know, this is one of the last sittings of it all, and here we are discussing a measure that what's up for consideration here is a very small amount of money, but on the other hand, it's about saving people's lives and looking after people's health. And we're also having it in the context of we're supposed to be getting near the final furlong in terms of the implementation of Solange Care, a public health system, and we're nowhere near that, unfortunately. The importance of blister packs and the importance of having monitored dosage systems cannot be overstated. Health and safety of patients is paramount. The withdrawal of this is dangerous, and I don't say that lightly. People who have complex medical needs and multiple conditions, this very basic service, which was provided free of charge, and I heard your interview on Sunday. I know you explained how it's been funded. I get that. But they're dealing with people who have multiple medical needs, but who also are taking multiple medications, and I've seen them on the kitchen table in households. They're taking two of this a day, they're taking four of that, they're taking one of this. They could have seven, eight different types of medication, and, you know, it's very, very hard for them to keep track of this, and this is a simple way of doing it. The majority of them are pensioners, or disabled people, or people on very low incomes. You're talking about the most vulnerable. The blister packs, they're simple, and it's a safe way of ensuring that people are taking the correct dosage at the right time, at the correct time of the day, and everything else. Older people, and including people who arrange medical conditions, rely on them. And, as I said, those who have complex medical needs, chemists, I know, can charge 30, 40, 50 euros for them, but this is on top of other medical costs. The decision by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to withdraw this now, and you as minister, it's putting an extra burden on these low-income households and individuals, and it's coming at the worst time of the year for this. The majority of those that are typically dependent on the PACs being funded through what you said on Sunday, and fair enough, is what's called a phased dispensing reimbursement scheme. And the majority of them are on low incomes, and this is coming on top of increasing food costs, increasing energy costs. Again, another announcement today. These are all increasing. And wait till the bills start coming in January. We haven't even hit Christmas yet. And this comes on top of all that big cost of living right across the board that's happening, the way that's increasing, and it'll disproportionately hit the poor the hardest. And what must also be factored into this is the low-income thresholds for medical cards. Under 66s, I'll ask you on call it. If you're under 66, the income threshold for a single person is 184 euros. Now, the last time I can remember that being increased was back at the start of the noughties, back around 2002 or 2003. I'm hoping the correction was well over 20 years ago. Over 66, 201 euros. When you hit that, you're gone. You can't get a full medical card. A couple, for a couple under 66, 201 euros. A couple over 66, between that and 70, 298 euros. And I'm imploring on the two ministers here to address this. Also, what's increased in the last 14 or 15 years is the number of items and medications no longer covered by the medical card scheme. And every TD will have heard this over the past 14 or 15 years. People coming to us and saying to us, it's such and such a thing that I just get on a medical card. It's no longer there. It's withdrawn. And then, of course, the third one that's happened and that's come into play in the last 14 years. And I raise this, going back with James Riley, Leo Vladkar, and every Minister for Health here since then. It's GPs charging for blood tests. Now, that used to be free for people with a medical card. But what happened was, was that the GPs started charging for it and they say they don't have to do it according to their contract. But the government, which you were in part of at the time, the Fine Gael government, negotiated a new contract with the GPs. And this wasn't addressed in it, despite the fact that it's pointed out on the floor of the Dáil here to Leo Vladkar and James Riley here and others. I remember standing here in this spot, pointing it out to him, and so did others at the time, because I had pensioners coming to me about it at the time. And that needs to be sorted out. So you have all of that, the low income threshold, increase in medical card costs, the number of substances not covered, and then you have GPs charging for the medical card, charging medical card patients for blood tests. So when you negotiated the agreement with the pharmacies this year, this wasn't included. The state, I know, always paid for the phased dispensing, and that was used in a safer way, you know, for different people. Some pharmacies were using it to cover the costs, and that's fair enough. So there's two ways to resolve this. One is to allow the pharmacies to cover the costs under the existing, what's called the phased dispensing scheme. Or the other is to pay the pharmacies a modest fee to dispense this using the monitored dosage system and using the blister packs. There's had to have been a giveaway budget for the big hotels and McDonald's and Costa, nearly €1 billion they got. And, you know, the small, tiny amount of money that would fix this wasn't thought of. It needs to be finished, this needs to be fixed, Minister. And we're nearly on the eve of Christmas, and I'm saying to you to do one good thing for Christmas. Sort out this and cover the costs of the blister packs, and keep our patients and elderly people and vulnerable people safe. Thank you. Thank you, Dr Healy.