Vol. 448 No. 8
36 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Health the cost of the general medical card services nationally; the number of card holders nationally; and the percentage of the population as in the case of Galway city and county. [2990/95]
Limerick East): Annual costs of the general medical services scheme include payments of fees and allowances to general practitioners and pharamacists participating under the scheme together with the costs of medicines and appliances made available to medical card holders. The provisional outturn for 1994 for the scheme as published in the abridged version of the 1995 Estimates for the Public Services is £246.526 million. The provision made for such services in 1995 is £256.646 million. The total number of persons covered by the scheme as at September 1994 was 1,278,931 of which 74,921 were resident in Galway city or county. Some 4.6 per cent of the population of Galway city and county are covered by the scheme compared with 36.3 per cent of the population nationally.
