McGrath withdraws his support from Government

Dublin North Central Independent TD Finian McGrath has announced his intention to withdraw his support from the Government over the controversial budget proposal to end the universal provision of medical cards to over-70s.

At a press conference in Dublin this evening, Mr McGrath also signalled that he would vote against the Government when the Fine Gael private members' motion opposing the medical card proposal is put before the Dáil on Wednesday night.

Mr McGrath told assembled journalists "I am not going to beat around the bush. I am here to announce my withdrawal from supporting the Government."

He said that the medical card issue was the primary reason that guided his decision. "Tinkering around with the issue is not an option. I am calling for a total reversal. I have talked to our senior citizens and listened to them."

Mr McGrath stated that he will vote on each issue as it arises and said his decision had come after waiting patiently for the Government to reverse the decision for a few days.

"I have always supported the call for more patriotism. However, my patriotism does not include hammering the elderly, the sick the disabled and young children in large classes."

Mr McGrath's withdrawal of support was widely anticipated since the weekend, when he signalled that the removal of medical cards from pensioners was unacceptable and unpalatable.

On Friday, Mr McGrath met with the Minister for Health Mary Harney and said afterwards that he was prepared to see the compromise the Government would propose. However, by Saturday he had hardened his position to say that he would withdraw his support unless the scheme in its entirety was scrapped.

Mr McGrath also signalled the possibility of the re-establishment of a technical group in the Dáil, comprising Sinn Féin, Tony Gregory, himself and Joe Behan. He said he would be talking to Mr Behan tomorrow.

On his contacts with Government, he said he had spoken to Mr Cowen's programme manager Joe Lennon yesterday to inform him of his decision. He was also in regular contact with Government chief whip Pat Carey.

He agreed he had changed his position between Friday and Saturday morning but denied it had anything to do with Joe Behan's resignation from Fianna Fáil.

"What influenced me was listening to people and taliking to constituents for 5 hours on Saturday morning. This was also the way my election workers wanted to go. I did change ground. I did change," he said.