LONG TERM unemployed people who lost their medical cards when taking up work under various Government job schemes earlier this year are to have them returned.
Last week the general secretary of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Mr Mike Allen, said that up to 3,000 people were finding themselves in difficulty because health boards appeared unaware of changes introduced during the Budget which allowed unemployed people to retain medical cards for up to three years after starting work.
The medical card is one of the secondary benefits which people can retain when joining such schemes as Job start or the Community Employment Programme. The aim is to make it more attractive for them to rejoin the mainstream labour market.
The Department of Health is to put notices in newspapers this week inviting people to contact local health centres to have their entitlement restored.
The problem arose because the various schemes involved are run by either the Department of Enterprise and Employment or the Department of Social Welfare, while the medical card scheme is administered through the Department of Health.
However, the chief executive officers of the eight regional health boards have now been fully briefed on the schemes. They agreed at a meeting on July 19th to Cooperate fully with them.
The Fianna Fail spokeswoman on enterprise and employment, Ms Mary O'Rourke, has welcomed the decision. But she says the Government must streamline ministerial responsibility for the schemes to avoid similar confusion in future.