Medical need a non-runner for cards

A controversial plan to allocate medical cards on medical grounds looks likely to be dropped after the new health minister said it would be difficult to base entitlements on "a hierarchy of illnesses".

Leo Varadkar also indicated yesterday that the health budget could overrun by up to €500m, as previously suggested by the HSE.

Outlining key ambitions for his department, Mr Varadkar said he was awaiting an expert group’s report on how medical need should be taken into account when discretionary medical cards are being granted.