Medical cards for 10,000 disabled children

Up to 10,000 disabled children in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance are to be given access to free medical cards, according to a government memorandum to be discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday.

Ministers will be asked to approve the €10m a year measure when they meet, according to the memo, seen by the Irish Examiner.

At present, about 10,000 of the 33,000 disabled children under the age of 16 who get the domiciliary care allowance are not, for a number of reasons, entitled to a medical card, and therefore have to bear the high cost of treating their conditions.