FF COUNCILLORS:FIANNA FÁIL councillors expressed "anger" over the medical card issue at an emergency meeting in Ballinasloe, yesterday.
However, a motion calling for the abandonment "in its entirety" of the plan to withdraw medical cards from people over 70 was toned down in a statement issued after a four-hour meeting .
The statement, read by the chair of the Fianna Fáil national councillors' forum, Cllr Deirdre Forde of Cork County Council, said the forum "expressed anger that there would be any possibility of anyone losing their entitlement to the over-70s medical card".
"Following communication with the Taoiseach this evening, the Fianna Fáil national councillors' forum urges him to re-address the Budget proposals immediately in the light of our members' views,"it said.
Cllr Forde told journalists that no further questions would be taken on the statement.
Minister of State for Health and Children John Moloney, who attended the gathering of some 60 councillors at the Taoiseach's request, denied that he had tried to direct the party representatives.
However, he said that he was very pleased that they had agreed to "allow Taoiseach Brian Cowen space" to deal with the issue.
He said he would be meeting the Taoiseach this morning to convey the councillors' views.
"I am the first to acknowledge that there must be changes in the way the Budget is presented," Mr Moloney said. "However, the deal that we agreed in 2001 on medical cards cannot be sustained into the future."
Mr Moloney said that he appreciated the councillors' anger, as he had also received many phone calls over the medical card issue.
The meeting, which was closed to the press, had been convened by text messages sent to the party's 260 councillors over the weekend.
Speaking before it started, Cllr Forde said that her colleagues had received "hundreds of phone calls" since the Budget, and "people are disgusted to be facing this at a time when they can least do without a medical card".
"We are running into local elections next year, and we want to be confident that Taoiseach Brian Cowen is listening to us," Cllr Forde said.
Cllr Tomás Mannion, of Galway County Council, said that the medical card cutbacks had to change. "Coming after the bailout of the banks, when we didn't allow for a clawback on the salaries and bonuses of bank management, we are now asking the people on low incomes to take the pain," Cllr Mannion said.