In 1989 new contracts were entered into by the health boards and individual doctors for the provision of services for medical card holders, following an agreement between the Department of Health and the Irish Medical Organisation on the arrangements and the terms for the provision of such services. The new contracts provided, inter alia, for the termination of an individual contract on the giving of three months notice by the contract holder and for the termination of the general agreement, on which the contracts were based, on the giving of 12 months notice by either the Department of Health or the Irish Medical Organisation.