Parents face €650 bill after medical card delay

Thousands of parents whose children have not yet had their discretionary medical cards returned have had to pay up to €650 for school bus tickets for next term, Fianna Fáil has claimed.

Figures from the HSE show that 10,000 out of the 18,000 people who were due to have their medical or GP visit cards returned following a Government U-turn have so far received them.

However, there are concerns for those who did not get their cards back ahead of yesterday’s deadline to pay school transport fees, which are waived for families of medical card holders.