Martin: Need to move on from controversy

FORMER Health Minister Micheál Martin said he did not accept there was any embarrassment over the Government’s recent medical card climbdown, and that the country needed to “move on” from the issue.

Speaking at the launch of the Bord Gáis power plant project at Whitegate, Co Cork, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was the minister for health when the over-70s measure was first introduced, said it had come about in very different economic circumstances.

He denied that the budget was unravelling and said further difficult decisions would have to be made to tide the country over.