I welcome the announcement made by the HSE which stated that they hope to end the backlog in processing medical card applications by April of this year. I also welcome the introduction of a mechanism to allow applicants awaiting a decision to secure a 4 month extension to their medical card through their GP.

However serious questions must be answered by the Government for allowing the situation to deteriorate to such a level and disregarding evidence that stated that the creation of a central medical card office would cause severe delays.

When the centralisation of this office was announced I predicted that huge problems would ensue and repeatedly warned and voiced my concerns to the Government on such. All concerns raised by myself and from local offices were disregarded and the centralisation was progressed without the necessary forward planning and training of staff. Instead the government ploughed ahead with stopping local offices from processing medical card applications and renewals and all applications were then sent to the centralised office.

This has proven to be a disastrous policy for applicants. The central office was overwhelmed by the volume of applications. By preventing local offices from processing applications a huge amount of specialised and complex knowledge relating to the processing of medical cards was lost. The staff in the centralised office, though no fault of their own, simply did not have the expertise and knowledge to deal with the volume of applications and their complexity. Staff in the medical card office were redeployed from other areas and were not given the requisite training prior to the opening of the centralised office. Training was always going to be required to arm staff with the skill set and expertise to deal with this personal and highly sensitive information. From the offset they were on the back foot and immediately began to fall behind. In fact training was only commenced after the opening of the office which was not alone illogical but again served to add to the delays as staff were not available to process applications while they were receiving training.

The reality is that the centralisation of medical card offices has caused undue hardship, anxiety and stress for a huge amount of families. Rather than the promised turnover time of 15 days for applications there have been delays of up to 9 months, repetition of correspondence, applications and documents being misplaced, all of which led to huge financial strain on applicants. In fact rather than the promised turn over time, we are now learning that there is in fact a backlog of 31,456 applications.

Since the centralisation of the medical card office I have had an unprecedented number of calls from constituents who were battling a chronic illness and were being tied up in red tape at every turn by the medical card office. Numerous people complained to me of applications and sensitive documentation being lost or misplaced. It is unconscionable to put these people through such bureaucracy and delays at a time when they are fighting for their health. Rather than getting support from the state they were sent from pillar to post and forced to suffer delays.

The impact of this cannot be underestimated. Not alone did these delays cause stress but it would also have put applicants under severe financial pressure as they were forced to cover the costs of their necessary medical treatments. These costs would have been significant and a huge burden on already stretched families. I am calling on the Government therefore to introduce a clear system to repay the medical costs accrued while applicants were awaiting their medical cards. The Government must accept responsibility for this shambles and must take active steps to repay those who have suffered through no fault of their own.

The implementation of the recommendations of the Report on the Review of Certain Decentralisation Programme Projects by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform earlier this week has raised a number of questions for the decentralised Equality Authority office in Roscrea. I am concerned about the future of the Equality Authority Office which was decentralised to Roscrea and currently employs 16 people.

In the first instance I am disappointed that full decentralisation to this office will not continue. The report lists the Equality Authority as one of the offices where an advance party is already in place and has stated that this advance party will stay in place at present but the remaining posts will not be moved to Roscrea.

In total this office was to employ 41 people which would have been a major boost to the Roscrea area. Unfortunately the current Government is not progressing the decentralisation programme for economic reasons. While I understand and appreciate these reasons it is a further final blow to the people of Roscrea who have already lost so much from their town.

The wording of the report itself raises concerns for the office. The Roscrea office is singled out as still being under review. The report specifically states that;

“The Department of Justice and Equality reports that the future of the Roscrea office is being considered by a working group set up to advise the Minister on issues relating to the amalgamation of the Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority and that, while it will remain in situ at present, a decision on its future will be taken once the working group has reported with its recommendations.”

This vagueness creates great uncertainty for the future of the Equality Authority Office. It is unclear at this point whether the office in Roscrea will face amalgamation or even closure, quite simply we have no indication what the recommendations of the report will be. I have written to Minister Brendan Howlin T.D. seeking further information and assurances on this matter. I will be continuing to monitor this issue closely to ensure that the best possible outcome for Roscrea is the one that is advanced, further to this report being published in the future.