The Medical Practitioners Bill was disposed of in Senator Haughton's absence but he desires to make a statement.
MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS BILL, 1927.
CATHAOIRLEACH
I am glad that this important Bill has been so ably handled by the Minister. One of the changes effected by the Bill is a change of name from the General Medical Council to the Medical Registration Council. As one who has been connected with an important hospital in the South of Ireland for over thirty-seven years and who has been brought into close contact with the medical and surgical profession, I should like to bear testimony to the fact that the past record has been a happy one in regard to appointments for Irishmen not only across Channel, but throughout the British Commonwealth of Nations and the wide world. All over Great Britain and the Colonies I can point to many men occupying important positions who were qualified in this country.
There is one provision in the Bill which I regret. That is the new means of suggesting a representative of this country for the Medical Council across Channel. The recommendation is to come from the Governor-General of Northern Ireland instead of from the Governor of this State whose personality and popularity would carry as much confidence and weight as any other individual throughout Europe. I regret that one of the first acts of the Governor of Northern Ireland has been to make a change in the representation on that Council and that the man who so ably represented Ireland on that Council has now ceased to function. A Northerner has now been appointed. However, I recognise in this generous act of allowing the North to step in an act of wise statesmanship. It may with the cumulative effect of other things tend to wipe away the artificial boundary that exists between the Six Counties and the Twenty-Six.