Vol. 493 No. 4
119 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Health and Children the regulations, if any, there are in relation to unemployed persons retaining medical cards on return to work; the reason a person (details supplied) has been told he does not qualify for the retention of his medical card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16453/98]
As part of budget 1996 the then Government announced that "persons who have been unemployed for at least one year shall retain their medical cards after entering employment." Persons on the live register for at least one year, who take up paid insurable employment, were deemed to meet the criteria for retaining their medical cards for three years. The provision also covers participants on approved schemes applicable to the long-term unemployed, including back to work allowance (BTWA), community employment, Jobstart, Job Initiative, Partnership and Community Group Initiative and development courses such as Workplace and vocational training opportunities scheme (VTOS). The purpose of the budget provision was to remove disincentives to labour force participation by long-term unemployed persons.
In addition to this, the Minister for Finance announced in December 1997 a budget tax initiative to help the long-term unemployed. Essentially the initiative, known as Job Assist, offers tax incentives to employers to employ persons who are long-term unemployed and to the latter to take up qualifying employment. Participants are entitled to retain their medical cards for three years after entering a qualifying employment.
The implementation of these provisions is a matter for health board chief executive officers, who have statutory responsibility for the administration of the medical card scheme. I, as Minister for Health and Children, do not have a function in the issue of medical cards to individuals. However, as the issue relating to the individual concerned is the responsibility of the chief executive officer of the Eastern Health Board I have asked him to have the matter investigated and to reply directly to you.
