Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 8 Feb 1990

Vol. 395 No. 5

Written Answers. - Medical Defence Union Payments.

Bernard Allen

Ceist:

78 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health the total amount paid by his Department in each year from 1986 to 1989 inclusive and the projected figure for 1990 in relation to payments to the Medical Defence Union under the terms of the consultants' common contract which requires his Department to pay approximately 80 per cent of the medical defence subscriptions for consultants; and if he proposes to renegotiate this undertaking during the course of discussions about the revision of the common contract.

Minister for Health (Dr. O'Hanlon)

The information requested by the Deputy is not readily available. My Department are in the process of collecting the information from health agencies and I will forward it to the Deputy as soon as possible. The Deputy will be aware that the review of the common contract currently being undertaken by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector embraces the full range of medical consultants' conditions of employment, including the provision for employers bearing a major portion of the cost of medical defence subscriptions.