Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I do not believe grassroots Fianna Fáil supporters want the health care system to be based on the making of a distinction between those who have money and those who do not. Fianna Fáil has always prided itself on the idea that all people should be treated equally. It has never before subscribed to an ethos of discriminating between poor people with low incomes and wealthy people. It has been enlightening to observe the change in the way Fianna Fáil considers the general public. It is no longer the democratic and republican party of old.

The Minister for Health and Children has not yet signed the commencement order for the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, which was rushed through the Oireachtas in April. She has argued that the substance of the Bill remains unchanged, but it has not been implemented. The Minister knows as well as I do that the existence of a lay majority on the Medical Council will not protect patients in our hospitals. While such a majority is good for the general ethos of the health service, it is of no consequence unless it is accompanied by the other changes we supported in the Act. I have asked the Minister on many occasions when she intends to make medical competence assurance, which is to be put in place on a phased basis, part of the ethos of the health care services. She has done nothing about it, to be quite honest. All we have is a voluntary process whereby doctors can ask 25 of their patients to write to the Medical Council stating whether they think the doctor is good or bad. As a doctor, I am in a position to participate in that process. I do not believe that is transparent, given that doctors are unlikely to choose patients who do not get on with them.