asked the Minister for Health if he intends to renegotiate the common contract with consultants; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
19.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Common Contract.
13.
asked the Minister for Health when he proposes to open a discussion with the Medical Union concerning the review of the common contract.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 19 together.
It is the intention that the negotiations for the review of the common contract will be conducted by management with the Irish Medical Organisation as soon as possible. To this effect the Local Government Staff Negotiations Board has written to the Irish Medical Organisation seeking such a review. The initial response of that organisation was that it was not prepared to undertake a review of the common contract until such time as certain difficulties which arose in the application of the common contract to two individual cases were resolved. While every effort is being made to resolve these two cases, I cannot accept that this would constitute sufficient grounds for holding up the negotiations. In any event section 10 of the Interim Report of the Working Party on a Common Contract states that "the contract should be the subject of a complete general review within a period of five years". That period has now expired.
A response from the Irish Medical Organisation to a further recent letter from the Local Government Staff Negotiations Board is awaited. I can assure the Deputy that it is a matter of concern to me that the review has not already commenced. In a recent meeting with the Irish Medical Organisation I highlighted the importance attached by me to this matter and I intend to return to it in future meetings with the organisation in the near future.
Would the Minister agree that the reason for the association's resistance to any renegotiation of the contract, even though it is up for review, is that the present contract offers them a blank cheque whereby some of their members, on top of their annual salary of £32,000, are earning treble that in private practice, utilising publicly funded equipment and staff? Would the Minister agree that it is a major scandal that such a haemorrhage should be taking place from the health services at a time when there are serious cutbacks? If the association do not immediately enter into negotiations, would the Minister assure the House that this type of serious abuse of the present contract will be stopped immediately?
I would share the Deputy's view that the common contract should never have been drafted or negotiated in the manner it was and that the management should never have signed it with the representatives of the then medical organisations in the manner in which it was signed and agreed. However, that is past history and it is a very salutary lesson. We are now trying to redress this and to bring in a common contract which would reflect mutual responsibilities and mutual regard for public moneys.
May I have a final supplementary question?
I am sorry, I am now taking Priority Questions. I did not make the order, Deputy. The House made it.
Surely those who have Priority Questions should not be using this part of Question Time?
The order did not forbid that.
I said nothing on that question.