A Minister of State was booed off the altar in St Andrew's Church on Westland Row this morning when he tried to address the Age Action meeting called to protest over the abolition of the automatic entitlement to medical cards for the over 70s.
More than 1,000 older people attended the meeting and there were angry shouts of protest every time the Government and Fianna Fáil were mentioned.
Minister of State for Health John Moloney was the Government's representative at the meeting, but when he stood up to speak, he was loudly heckled and he eventually left the microphone.
The meeting was due to be held in a room in a hotel with a capacity for 300, but when hundreds of older people began to turn up, the meeting was moved to the nearby church.
More than two dozen older people addressed the meeting before political leaders were given two minutes each to speak.
PD senator Fiona O'Malley was also heckled but addressed the crowd and said it was wrong that the minister was not allowed to speak. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore and Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin all received a warm welcome.
Members of the public highlighted previous Government blunders such as the removal of a shilling from old age pensions and the tax on children's shoes. They rejected the move to raise the threshold for the means test and said the medical card should be available to all over-70s.
The meeting unanimously carried a motion calling on the Government to reverse its decision to abolish the automatic right to the medical card for over-70s.
A second protest meeting has been organised for tomorrow by the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament.
