asked the Minister for Health whether in view of the statement made by the Irish Medical Association that there is no ban against medical practitioners applying for posts under the Local Appointments Commission, he will state fully what significance he attaches to a statement appearing in the current issue of the Irish Medical Journal, which is considered to be the official organ of the Irish Medical Association, to the effect that medical practitioners are requested not to apply for, accept or sit on interview boards for specified appointments without first communicating with the medical secretary of the Association.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Posts: Notice in Irish Medical Journal.
16.
The Irish Medical Association, in its public statement of 13th June last denying the existence of any ban, sought to explain the notice asking medical practitioners not to apply for or accept certain posts in the service of local authorities without first consulting the association as merely a means of enabling the Association to explain to prospective candidates for the posts concerned the terms and conditions of services attaching to such posts, a work of supererogation since the candidates are persons with sufficient general education to read and understand the documents issued to them in connection with their candidature.
The request to medical practitioners not to sit on interview boards is quite inconsistent with the statement of 13th June. The Local Appointments Commissioners are careful not to invite to sit on interview boards any person who is not highly qualified and mature in experience. It is difficult to accept that persons of such standing should require instruction from the Association or otherwise as to how they should comport themselves on such boards.
There is another aspect of this question. It is the practice of the Local Appointments Commissioners to ask persons invited to sit on boards to regard the invitation as confidential. The purpose underlying this practice is obvious. The Commissioners must take all possible steps to ensure that the selection of candidates is purely on merit and is not subject to outside influences. The action of the Irish Medical Association in asking persons invited to sit on boards to break confidence with the Local Appointments Commissioners by disclosing the fact to that Association is not calculated to reassure the public in this regard.
In general, I regard the notice as an attempt on the part of the Association to impede the proper functioning of the health services by seeking to interfere with the proper working of the machinery laid down by law for securing the recruitment of the most highly qualified personnel.
Would the Minister agree that it now appears that the I.M.A. as a result of this article in their Journal, appear to be imposing a ban at the source?
We cannot hear the Deputy.
Sure he knew what was coming.
Perhaps the Deputy would repeat the question.
I trust Deputy Mulcahy is now listening. Would the Minister agree that the I.M.A. are now in fact——
Read it out.
——endeavouring to suborn a breach of the Official Secrets Act?
I do not know about the Official Secrets Act but apparently they are endeavouring to secure a breach of confidence on the part of those people who are invited by the Local Appointments Commissioners to sit on interview boards.
Does the Minister really believe that he is making any contribution to the decencies of public life in this country by having arranged questions of this kind put down so that he can make vituperative ex-parte speeches in the House without any opportunity of having them properly debated?
I do not think that supplementary question should be allowed. I think every Deputy in the House is entitled to put down a question on the Order Paper without being pilloried for doing so.
Am I not entitled to enquire if it is appropriate for the Minister for Health to avail of the procedure of this House to make long ex-parte statements of that kind of a most highly contentious nature——
That does not arise.
——in circumstances which certainly suggest to us that arrangements have been made to have the questions asked in order to provide an occasion for giving the answers?
A suggestion has been made by the leader of the Opposition that I put down a question in this case as a result of prior consultation or arrangement with the Minister for Health. Might I say that I have not discussed any questions I put down with the Minister for Health at any time——
Why? Is he not speaking to the Deputy?
Further, I should like to draw attention to the breach of Standing Orders and to ask if the suggestion made by Deputy Dillon could now be withdrawn?
If the Deputy pledges his word of honour that his statement is true, I accept it, of course. But I ask the Minister—does he think he is making any contribution to the settlement of a delicate and difficult situation by exchanges of this kind in the House?
I do not think I am doing any harm to the decencies of public life when I answer a question put down by a Deputy in order to elicit information which is of great importance to the public in regard to this matter and when I answer that question truthfully. I am concerned that this controversy should not be prolonged; but I have a duty to make it quite clear that statements which have been made that there is no ban are in fact without foundation and that on the contrary there is in fact a very active ban. As my reply to this question has shown, this ban is imposed at the very start of the procedure which the House has set up in order to secure that the medical services of the State will be staffed by properly qualified persons selected on merit alone.
Is the Minister aware of the circumstances and conditions under which medical officers in the country work and which are such that they prevent persons applying for the posts?
That seems to be a separate question.
And will the Minister say when the personnel in the Department of Health will be allowed to direct their energies and attention to that aspect of the public interest?
That is a separate question.
In that case, I shall not answer it.
It is a question that is sticking out and creating very great difficulty for the public down the country, and for the people who have to carry on the medical services.