AN ANNUAL €50 charge for medical cards may be introduced as part of new health service cuts under consideration by the Government, Minister for Health James Reilly has signalled.
New charges may also be introduced for home help or other community services.
The existing 50-cent-per-item prescription charge for medical card patients may also be increased rather than abolished as the Minister promised on taking up office.
Up to 40 Health Service Executive-run community nursing units for older people could also face closure under the proposals being considered ahead of the budget on December 6th.
Dr Reilly gave details of the cuts under consideration by Cabinet at a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party last night.
Dr Reilly outlined similar cutbacks in a later briefing of Labour TDs and Senators, during which he was flanked by that party’s Ministers of State at the Department of Health, Róisín Shortall and Kathleen Lynch.
It is understood that the Minister said the Department of Health was coming under pressure to “front-load” health service cuts this year rather than space them out over a number of years.
Fine Gael and Labour parliamentarians who attended the meetings said the Minister had maintained the cuts were inevitable unless more flexibility was given to him with regard to the health budget for next year.
“Some people feel that James is probably racheting it up a bit so that the cuts won’t seem so bad, but his department is being asked to make fairly severe cuts,” one source at the meeting said. Other sources said Dr Reilly appeared to be pleading for more flexibility from his Cabinet colleagues on the shape of the health budget for next year.
“He made it clear to us that the cuts he outlined are the consequence of being asked to frontload the health cuts for next year, and he was appealing for more time to spread them out,” said one TD.
Strong support for Dr Reilly was expressed last night by Fine Gael's Jerry Buttimer.
“We have a unique opportunity to change our country for the better and we can’t funk it. Ministers and backbenchers have a duty to the people of the country to turn the country around so that we have jobs for our people.”
Mr Buttimer appealed to Fine Gael and Labour colleagues not to undermine the Government’s budgetary plans by making critical statements.
Strong criticism of the Croke Park deal that protects public service pay and pensions was voiced by many of the more than 30 Fine Gael TDs and Senators who attended their party meeting. Wexford Senator Michael D’Arcy was first to raise the issue, colleagues of his confirmed.
Mr D’Arcy was quoted by those who attended the meeting as saying: “If 70 per cent of the budget is ring-fenced through Croke Park for salaries, that leaves 30 per cent available for reductions. Those reductions are so severe that they’re not acceptable.”
Meanwhile, the Government is also understood to be considering reducing the rate of Universal Social Charge for lower-paid workers as part of an effort to lessen the burden of heavy cuts on that cohort in the Budget. The Cabinet yesterday held the first of three days of meetings this week, primarily focused on the Budget. Yesterday’s meeting focused on two of the biggest spending departments, health and education. The final meeting tomorrow will be geared towards finalising social welfare cuts – including a decision on whether children’s benefit will be cut – as well as the Government’s job initiative.