The Tánaiste and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has said she does not believe the 200,000 new doctor-only medical cards will be overused by patients or will overwhelm family doctors.
The Minister said patients wanted the dispute over the new cards between health employers and GPs to be resolved.
Ms Harney was addressing the annual conference of the Irish College of GPs in Galway.
The Health Service Executive has warned GPs that they will not receive pay increases they believe are due if they do not co-operate with the new doctor-only cards.
The Tánaiste said today she had asked the Executive to start inviting applications for the new cards next week.
She also said she plans to overhaul the eligibility system for the standard medical card so that it only takes into account disposable income and not the cost of rent, mortgage or reasonable childcare costs.
She said the existing guidelines had not led to the expected uptake of 30,000 more medical cards.
