SF leader issues medical card pledge

SINN FÉIN will use its post-election bargaining power to introduce a medical card for every child under 18 years of age and create 3,000 additional acute hospital beds, the Árd-Fheis heard.

In his address to the Sinn Féin Árd-Fheis, party president Gerry Adams detailed a series of pre-election pledges focused on the public health care system, education, taxation and housing.

Insisting that the party is “ready for political power”, the Sinn Féin president committed to ensuring that all health funding is invested in the public system, the tax breaks for developers of private hospitals are abolished and all new hospital consultant posts are public only.