The HSE's confirmed that people who have already lost their medical cards will NOT be able to get them back.
It's freezing its review of discretionary medical cards after the government decided to change the criteria under which cards are awarded.
But the HSE says the law would need to be changed if people who have already lost their cards are to get them back.
The junior health minister Alex White says the government needs to admit that it got it wrong with the plans to take cards off people in the first place:
