asked the Minister for Health the number of meetings which have been held between his Department and the medical profession since the publication of the report of the Working Party on the General Medical Service; when it is expected that negotiations will conclude; if his Department have made any estimate of the cost of a public service pension for participating GMS doctors; and, if so, if he will state what the cost would be.
Written Answers. - General Medical Service.
88.
There have been 12 meetings between officials of the Department of Health and representatives of the Irish Medical Organisation in the course of the ongoing discussions and negotiations arising from the publication of the report of the Working Party on the General Medical Service in August 1984. I am hopeful that these negotiations can be brought to a satisfactory agreed conclusion in the current year.
It has been the policy of successive Governments that pensionability in the public sector be confined to wholetime, salaried employees who are directly employed under a contract of service. Any departure from this general policy on superannuation in the public sector, in respect of those doctors who provide services as self-employed independent contractors in the general medical service, would have very serious implications for many other groups who are similarly excluded from pensionability. These would include a variety of parttime employees and self-employed or fee-paid individuals who provide services to the State. The cost implications of any extension of public sector pensionability, beyond the well-established categories of entitlement, would be such that the prospect cannot be contemplated. No estimate of the costs of providing a public service pension specifically for those doctors who participate as independent self-employed contractors in the GMS has been prepared.