‘We’re a society, not an economy. I hope they’ve learned that’

"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.

Last October, despite an eye infection, he waited for two hours outside a hotel in Limerick hoping to get a word with the Taoiseach on the way into the Fine Gael annual conference.

His mother, Noreen Keane, believes that if Enda Kenny stopped to talk to them, rather than driving past on that winter evening, he might have saved himself a lot of political hassle.