The Health Minister says he is considering plans to broaden the eligibility for discretionary medical cards.

The comments from James Reilly come after a number of backbench Fine Gael TDs told him last night that their constituents number one fear was having their cards removed.

The Minister says he has asked TDs to give him a list of "hard cases" where they feel people should have been given cards so his Department can get to the bottom of it.

James Reilly says adding a "third tier" to discretionary medical cards is one of the measures he is exploring.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) Service Plan, published last December, saw the plan to save the €113 million by slashing medical cards reduced.

This figure was cut to just €23 million.

The Health Minister said previously that he knew from budget day he could never deliver up to €133 million in savings from medical cards.