The top-earning family doctor in the country, Andrew Jordan, received more than €1.1m from the State for the treatment of medical card patients last year.

Medicinal cannabis campaigner Vera Twomey, who secured a licence for the medication for her ill daughter Ava Barry, has said the eight-year-old is now pharmaceutical free.

The Health Minister has signed laws reducing prescription charges for those with medical cards.

Up to 10,000 disabled children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance are to be given access to free medical cards, according to a government memorandum to be discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday.

Up to 10,000 disabled children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance are to be given access to free medical cards, according to a government memorandum to be discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday, writes Political Editor Daniel McConnell.

The Minister for Health has agreed to extend automatic medical cards to all children where families are in receipt of domiciliary care allowance.

Children with life-limiting illness should get medical cards, as well as those with cancer, the Irish Hospice Foundation has urged.

A new report from the ESRI says the majority of jobseekers would be better off financially in employment.

Women with medical cards should be able to get the morning-after pill directly from a pharmacy free of charge and without a prescription, says the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU).

Medical card holders are more likely to consider the healthcare system fit for purpose, a survey has revealed.

Financial means tests carried out on the families of seriously ill children seeking medical cards could be scrapped under plans being discussed by Government.

The family of a toddler denied a medical card three times despite having Down syndrome, a hole in the heart and a collapsed lung, is still living in limbo — three months after Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the issue would be resolved "to your satisfaction".

A campaign group fighting for medical card reforms is to hand a 65,000-strong petition into the Oireachtas health committee today in a bid to speed up promised changes to the system.

More than 87,000 people have lost their medical cards in the past year as the numbers eligible for free healthcare decreased by almost 5%.

The chair of the expert panel behind the medical card reforms has rejected claims the changes do not go far enough and mean patients still have complicated "hoops to jump through".

Plans to reform the medical card system have descended into farce just 24 hours after being unveiled after it was claimed that GPs have been able to reinstate the help since 2012, but never used the power.

Medical card changes

Family doctors will be able to restore medical cards to patients for up to a year in rare cases if they believe the vital help has been wrongly withdrawn by the HSE.

Cancer patients have criticised the Government’s high-profile medical card system reform plan, warning the changes have failed to change the focus on an applicant’s income, have left people in the dark and effectively allow the Coalition to "put a plaster over a wound that needs urgent surgical attention".

The cull of discretionary medical cards was "the most misguided political decision in years", according to the group representing seriously ill or disabled children who suffered as a result of card withdrawals.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has said there will be a secondary medical card test for those who do not meet the criteria of the means-test.

The HSE should fast-track ways of "extending medical cards automatically" to 80% of card holders whose entitlement to the help is still in doubt, despite the fact there is a "low risk" they will have the support removed.

Parents of seriously ill children still in limbo over the discretionary medical cards crisis are set to protest outside Leinster House during the first Cabinet meeting of the new Dáil term this Wednesday.

Thousands of parents whose children have not yet had their discretionary medical cards returned have had to pay up to €650 for school bus tickets for next term, Fianna Fáil has claimed.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has said that there is no point lobbying politicians for medical cards.

Fianna Fáil has today called on the Government to abandon plans to change the medical card system.

The HSE has said that more than two-thirds of people who lost their discretionary medical cards in the controversial review have now had them returned.

One family doctor’s practice received over €825,000 in payments from the State for the treatment of medical-card patients last year.

The Government is being urged to explain if the Dáil was misled during a debate last autumn on discretionary medical cards when ministers insisted just 1,000 people had lost the benefit since 2011.

The medical card fiasco will not impact on plans to introduce free GP care for all children under six, the Government pledged yesterday.

"So I’m getting my card back mammy." These were the words of Ronan Woodhouse, 8, after his long battle with the Government to get his medical card back came to an end.

Acknowledging just how cruel the medical card reviews had become, the Taoiseach described to the Dáil how people with motor neurone disease were "asked by the computer" to respond even though they "were unable to speak and move and therefore could not respond."

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has revealed he personally knew of people with motor neurone disease who were unable to respond to the Government’s botched medical card review due to the severity of their condition.

Jackie Connolly said she is delighted that her daughter, Katie, 6, will get her medical card back, but said the Government’s apology for the stress her and other families have suffered "is not good enough unless they compensate parents".

The Taoiseach has today signalled that there will be no re-imbursement of money to people who are getting their discretionary medical card returned.

More than 15,000 people will have discretionary medical cards restored following a humiliating climbdown by the Government which admitted it could "not stand over" withdrawals which it denied had been taking place for more than a year.

Patients, disability groups, and organisations looking after terminally ill children all welcomed the return of medical cards to 15,300 people who lost them since the controversial 2011 cull began — but warned the Government they are closely watching their next steps.

The Government’s decision to restore discretionary medical cards to around 15,000 people who lost them in the controversial eligibility review must get a cautious, qualified welcome. Experience shows it is best to wait until promises are delivered, and to see to what extent they are delivered, before this inevitable U-turn can be fully welcomed.

There has been a "narrowing" of discretion in the issuing of medical cards but no evidence of maladministration, the Ombudsman said yesterday.