OPPOSITION PARTIES have challenged claims that medical card income thresholds for those over 70 will be index-linked.
The controversy continued in the Dáil yesterday after comments by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan that the thresholds for eligibility would be "reviewed" annually.
Independent TD Michael Lowry (Tipperary North) voted with the Government in the Dáil on the issue this week after he said he had received written assurances from Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan that the new income threshold would rise every year, and that other schemes, such as free travel, would not be affected.
The new thresholds have been increased to €700 weekly for an individual and €1,400 for a couple.
However, when challenged by the Opposition about how index-linking would be implemented, Ms Coughlan said "the thresholds will be reviewed annually to take cost-of-living increases into account during this Government's lifetime".
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton, who raised the issue, asked how indexation would be legislated for since it was "now Government policy". The Tánaiste said a "legislative measure is unnecessary".
However, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore questioned why the Government would not "underpin the commitment it supposedly gave to the effect that means tests will be index-linked".
The means test limits would be reviewed "but this is not indexation".
"Reviewing them annually is not indexation. If someone voted in the chamber last night in the belief that indexation had been guaranteed, they have been sadly misled."
Sinn Féin's Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called for index-linking of income thresholds to apply to all applicants for the medical card and not just those over 70 years.
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly asked Ms Coughlan to confirm index-linking and that the thresholds "will not be reduced".
He said "a simple yes or no answer to the question will do because as we know certain people believe they have letters of undertaking which are in the back of cars on the way to Tipperary North".
Ms Coughlan replied: "I have already answered that question twice."
Labour TD Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West) said he had been told by doctors that the 2001 over-70s medical card contract with the Irish Medical Organisation included a provision that the entitlement could not be removed without the explicit agreement of the IMO.
When he pressed the Tánaiste to confirm whether it was true, the ceann comhairle ruled him out of order and Ms Coughlan said "I'm not going to say anything".
Mr Rabbitte said this meant it was true that "former minister for health Micheál Martin signed a contract that states doctors must agree to the removal of the entitlement before the Government can change it. That is unbelievable."
