Listening to that risible old fraud Mary O'Rourke on Newstalk this morning I was so overcome by the odour of sanctity that I fair felt my gorge rise. She was defending Fianna Fail's volte face on medical cards for the over seventies by claiming that this would remove the likes of High Court judges and medical consultants from the scheme.
What she failed to mention was that the means test devised for the new measures also removes the large number of people in the private sector whose pensions have been ravaged in recent times. The bar has been set a few euros above the state pension. This means that if your much reduced personal pension gives you an extra €100 a week say, you will not get the medical card. A further crushing blow to all whose pensions disappeared as a result of world-wide financial chicanery. Of course those in the public sector are protected from these chill financial winds by their index linked pensions - these include Mistress Mary.
