Labour party delegates have sharply criticised the Government's handling of the health services at the party's annual general meeting in Tralee.
Owen O'Shea, Kerry South listed a series of broken promises made by the Government, in particular the Government failing to to extend medical card eligibility to 200,000 extra people.
He said as the population has increased by 11 per cent the number of people eligible for a medical card has dropped by 8 per cent.
These figures testified to more and more people failing to qualify due to the strict income limits set by the Government. This was resulting in more and more people on social welfare failing the income limit means test while working people on modest and low incomes were above the threshold.
This was part of a system where people were "getting hammered day in, day out by stealth taxes" he said.
Mr O'Shea noted that the cost of a visit to a GP was now double what it was in 1997.