Medical card access extended for families affected by CervicalCheck scandal

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. The decision, approved by ministers, was done in recognition of the traumatic experiences the women and their families have endured. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

The Cabinet has extended to five years an agreement to give access to medical cards for family members of women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy.

The decision, approved by ministers, was done in recognition of the traumatic experiences these women and their families have endured.

The estimated cost of extending the benefit to about 1,100 family members is about €1.5m a year.

Sources said that while it had been expected the Cabinet would agree to a three-year extension to medical cards for dependants and family members of the women, it was felt a three-year extension was not enough.

The medical cards are for dependents or family members of about 230 affected women.

Cards held by the women themselves are permanent but the ones for their families were issued on an “administrative basis” by the HSE from May 2018 and had a three-year expiry date attached to them.

The cards had been issued as part of a package of supports for women and their families. Just under 1,100 dependants hold cards with expiry dates.

The move comes after it emerged last month that the CervicalCheck Tribunal has yet to receive a claim more than two months after it started work and two years after the Government decided to set it up.

Tribunal 'outreach programme'

The tribunal is to conduct an “outreach programme” to ensure “the public is informed of its existence” and how it plans to conduct its proceedings.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Helen McEntee also got approval at Cabinet to extend the period that visas are required to travel to, or for transiting through, Ireland for a number of countries.

The Government decision of January 26 introduced a temporary visa requirement for South American countries and South Africa. This extension is indefinite.

The countries covered by the January 26 decision are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa, Suriname, and Uruguay.

As visas are not being processed by Irish authorities for anyone other than people travelling for very limited essential reasons, this amounts to a ban on non-essential travel to Ireland for those nationals.

Visa requirements will continue to apply to nationals of those countries until it is considered they are no longer needed for public health reasons.

Ms McEntee also asked Cabinet to note her capacity to extend the visa-free travel ban to any other non-European Economic Area countries which are designated as high risk by the health minister.