An expert panel that was appointed by the HSE to examine what medical needs should be taken into account when it comes to medical card eligibility has found that it is ‘neither feasible nor desirable' to list medical conditions that would qualify for a card.

The panel of 23 experts was appointed last June following months of controversy over the removal of discretionary medical cards from seriously ill people, including children. This ended up being one of the main issues during the local and European elections earlier this year.

In May, the Government decided to suspend the review of medical cards and said that it would return thousands of cards to people who had already had them removed. These people were given temporary cards which are valid until the summer of 2015.

The expert panel's remit was to identify medical conditions that should be considered when determining medical card eligibility. Currently, eligibility is based solely on income, except in the case of discretionary cards which are provided in certain hardship cases.

However, according to RTE News, which has seen the unpublished report of the experts, it is not possible to identify a specific list of medical conditions because there is such a broad range of illnesses and within these, there are different levels of severity.

The panel said that the current discretionary card system works but is imperfect. It said that rules governing discretionary cards need to be applied consistently around the country.

Following on from these findings, it is now unclear what will happen to those people with temporary cards once they expire next year.