FINE GAEL health spokesman Dr James Reilly called for universal healthcare when he demanded the restoration of medical cards for all over 70 years.
"Fine Gael supports the policy of universal healthcare and I reject utterly the contention that it is unaffordable," said Dr Reilly.
"It is Fine Gael policy to introduce universal healthcare and we have a policy commission examining how to achieve it."
Dr Reilly was introducing a Private Member's Motion calling on the Government to retain the provision of medical cards for all over 70 years.
The House will vote on the motion tonight.
The Government, said Dr Reilly, had bailed out the banks but had bailed out on the elderly.
He said that some people, who had initially opposed the scheme, now supported it because people had become dependent on the medical card and had a legitimate expectation of it because of the health gains involved.
Dr Reilly said that pensioners had universal healthcare for seven years.
"These are the people who looked after us, raised us, nursed us when we were sick, protected us from violence, grew our food and ran a once proud Civil Service," Dr Reilly added.
"Is this how we repay them? By taking away something which was freely given by Micheál Martin and his Government in 2001. What is his view in all this?"
Minister for Health Mary Harney said that the measure had not been discussed by the Government in a theoretical sense.
"It was not as a matter of principle or policy. We did not have a seminar in relation to the issue," she added.
"We were discussing it in the context of the most difficult economic circumstances this country has faced in two decades," the Minister said.
Ms Harney said she had been a member of the House when the health budget had been cut by 3.5 per cent.
"Next year, even with the challenges, it has been increased by 3.5 per cent," she added.
The Department of Health, in the context of the Budget, had to reduce expenditure by €700 million. "There is no low hanging fruit in health," she said.
"It is not easy to find sums of money of that order."
Ms Harney said that the GMS scheme, as constructed, was rising at such a rate that, irrespective of who was Minister, they would have to tackle it.
She added that the last Fine Gael health minister had opposed the provision of medical cards to everybody aged over 80 years without reference to their means. The last Labour health minister had said exactly the same.
Ms Harney said that Mr Martin had negotiated the medical card deal for the over-70s with the IMO in good faith.
"The Government made the decision in the context of very different financial circumstances to the one we face today," Ms Harney added.
However, Labour health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan said that people no longer trusted the Government.
"Taking away the universal entitlement means that any Minister, with a stroke of a pen, can bring down those limits and exclude more people," she claimed.
Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said that even looking at it from a crude point of view of political management, the Government was responsible for a disaster.
"What trust can the people have in these troubled economic times in a Government that could perpetrate such a massive political blunder?" Mr Ó Caoláin asked.
