The origin of this question is that I heard a Fianna Fáil Deputy advise that it might be the way to deal with the failure of the Government to honour its commitment to give medical cards to 200,000 working class people. Is the Minister aware that this originated in a desire to assuage the deep anger and disappointment of these people, who felt betrayed by the Government reneging on its solemn commitment?
Will people who are slightly above the medical card threshold eligibility limits, which are abysmally low, and who find themselves strapped for cash and suffering hardship after having to purchase medicines and pay their GP, be assisted with a supplementary welfare allowance? Under section 266 of the 1993 Act, which outlines the grounds for entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance, would the chief executive officer of the health board be able to advise the superintendent community welfare officer that he or she could look favourably on people who might find themselves in such straitened financial circumstances and unable to pay those bills? What is the position in that regard? Would the Minister be prepared, particularly in the case of people who anticipated that they would get medical cards, which would be highly important to them from a psychological as well as a financial viewpoint, to provide an increase in the moneys available to the health boards to enable them to meet hardship payments, particularly those which might arise due to an outbreak of measles or some other disease in a family? These might not be once-off occurrences. A family might be obliged to meet these exceptional medical outlays a couple of times during the year.