Members of the pubic who are concerned about the provision of medical cards to seriously ill children are being asked to take part in a ‘Show of Support' outside Government buildings on Wednesday afternoon.

The event has been organised by the Our Children's Health campaign, which has been working to ensure that every child in Ireland who is diagnosed with a serious illness or congenital condition is legally entitled to a full medical card for the duration of their illness.

The campaign was started by two fathers, Kevin Shortall and Peter Fitzpatrick, last May, as a result of having to ‘fight tooth and nail' for a medical card for Mr Shortall's daughter, who had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in April 2012, just before her seventh birthday.

The launch of their campaign came at the same time that news was emerging that seriously ill people, including children, were having their discretionary medical cards taken away. Such was the backlash against this, the Government subsequently announced that many of those who had their cards removed would have them restored.

It also said it would establish a panel of experts to establish criteria for medical card eligibility based on serious medical need, rather than financial circumstances, as is currently the case.

However, according to Mr Shortall and Mr Fitzpatrick, there have been ‘many developments since the Government's decision to halt medical card reviews, return many of the cards removed and crucially establish a panel of medical experts to set out criteria that would, for the first time, grant eligibility for medical services based on serious medical need'.

"Health Minister Varadkar appears to have cast significant doubt over the work of the expert panel and his comments over the summer fall far short of commitments given to all of us by (former) Health Minister Reilly that Government would act swiftly following the expert panel's recommendations," they insisted.

The men had been maintaining a daily morning presence outside Government buildings at the beginning of their campaign, however due to the uncertainty surrounding Minister Varadker's comments, they reinstated this daily presence on July 22.

They will be outside the Department of the Taoiseach on Merrion Street from 7am on Wednesday, September 3, but they are calling on people to join with them between 1-2pm on that day. The event will coincide with the Cabinet's first meeting since the summer break.

"Eligibility for medical services on the basis of serious medical need must be a key priority. We can no longer continue with a system that takes no account whatsoever of the severity of an illness, particularly where our children are concerned," Mr Shortall and Mr Fitzpatrick insisted.

Parents that are unable to attend, but would like their child to be represented, can send photos of the child to info@ourchildrenshealth.ie. These photos will be printed and displayed on the day.

For more information on Our Children's Health click here, or see our feature here