Number of medical card holders

If someone worked all of their life and paid taxes, I believe they are entitled to all they can get back in old age/retirement years.

The people who should be hit are detailed below:

I understand that measures are ongoing to deal with welfare fraud, and some positives have happened. A more draconian approach may be needed for this, in 2006 Ireland effectively had full employment and we had to import people into Ireland to fill the jobs. Yet we still had people on job seekers, long term unemployment benefit (not counting disabled persons, elderly, infirm, seriously ill* etc.). I would like to know what amount of people were in receipt of this benefit (probably rent allowance, medical card etc.), that are still receiving unbroken welfare. It would not be unjust to cut every cent of benefit from such a person, as they obviously have no interest in working or contributing to society.

*I do not consider drug addicts to be seriously ill – this is a life choice and they should not be supported with cash/allowance/drugs of any sort.

I am of the opinion that one section of the population i.e. very rich over seventies as outlined above should not be treated more favourable than a struggling young family trying to raise kids and pay for mortgages and healthcare. There is no equity here at all.

There sure is no equity at all.

The problem any government faces is this, take anything from the OAPs (medical cards, free travel etc) and they will be annihilated at the ballot box. Enda knows this and this he fears the most. Hence no cuts to the pension whilst everyone else faced cuts.

Mrs Vimes said:

Nobody except my GP knows that I have one!

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and your pharmacist and hospital and associated staff. I know a lady attending a private medical business where appointments not free but some meds are on medical card and staff member she knew in there rang her to say she was a professional in her job and anything she asked was totally in private.

Also I find it very easy to see who had a medical card when waiting in chemist...they pay a few euro when getting meds.

I was walking down street and heard a chemist owner saying to a lady "lucky you have a medical card".

Captain Z said:

If someone worked all of their life and paid taxes, I believe they are entitled to all they can get back in old age/retirement years.

The people who should be hit are detailed below:

I understand that measures are ongoing to deal with welfare fraud, and some positives have happened. A more draconian approach may be needed for this, in 2006 Ireland effectively had full employment and we had to import people into Ireland to fill the jobs. Yet we still had people on job seekers, long term unemployment benefit (not counting disabled persons, elderly, infirm, seriously ill* etc.). I would like to know what amount of people were in receipt of this benefit (probably rent allowance, medical card etc.), that are still receiving unbroken welfare. It would not be unjust to cut every cent of benefit from such a person, as they obviously have no interest in working or contributing to society.

*I do not consider drug addicts to be seriously ill – this is a life choice and they should not be supported with cash/allowance/drugs of any sort.

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a minority of those of pension age have made sufficient contributions down the years to cover todays level of entitlements which have grown three fold since 1997 , most people appear completely unaware of this but its true

" they ( pensioners ) paid for it down the years " , is a complete myth in most cases

the elderly receive the entitlement they do due to their colossal voting power , not anything else

west_bound said:

a minority of those of pension age have made sufficient contributions down the years to cover todays level of entitlements which have grown three fold since 1997 , most people appear completely unaware of this but its true

" they ( pensioners ) paid for it down the years " , is a complete myth in most cases

the elderly receive the entitlement they do due to their colossal voting power , not anything else

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Agreed. They are the most privileged group in society, not withstanding that a proportion are in genuine need. It is their generation that wrecked the country (they were our leaders for the last 15-20 years). It is the generation behind me (I'm 40) that will fix it. The youth of today is better than my generation and my generation is better than the one that went before. The drivel spouted by some about the generation that "built this country" and "worked all their lived" is hype, hyperbole and bull.