asked the Minister for Health whether he has received from the Department of External Affairs details of EEC proposals, directives or regulations concerning professional qualifications affecting doctors, pharmacists or para-medical professions; whether he will place the relevant documents in the library of the House; whether he has transmitted copies of these documents to the relevant professional bodies in this country; and, if so, when these documents were so transmitted.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - EEC Professional Proposals.
10.
The most recent EEC proposals concerning professional qualifications affecting doctors, pharmacists and dentists received from the Department of External Affairs have been translated and were circulated to the relevant professional bodies, some on 12th June and others on 25th June. With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I shall place copies of these in the library. I should emphasise that they are draft proposals and that the translations may later require some amendment.
May I ask the Minister whether he is aware that, in at least one instance, these drafts were available 16 months ago and whether this is the first communication with the professional bodies concerned? Is the Minister further aware that in the case of the pharmacists the proposals were available in March of last year? In fact, I acquired copies of them in Brussels at that time. Is this the first communication?
The drafts were obtained on the 26th February and the 5th March. They were issued on the 26th February and the 8th March, 1969. They were obtained in April, translated from the French in the Department of Finance and circulated
Could the Minister say why, when these were available in March of 1968 when I myself acquired copies of them and transmitted them shortly afterwards to the Irish Pharmaceutical Society, the Department of External Affairs and his Department have not been more active in communicating them until a year afterwards?
I would say that they were circulated in due time.