Medical cards could badly burn Coalition

It is almost a year ago — when this newspaper first started reporting the removal of discretionary medical cards — that a former Labour politician observed it was the "third rail issue" of Irish politics.

The term is used to describe an issue that is as charged as a high-voltage power cable — touch it and get singed.

There were plenty of warnings for this Government, from the experience of its predecessors that medical cards fall into this politically untouchable category.