Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The IMO witnesses have given us a broad spectrum of the organisation's views. They have done the patient advocate piece, which is to spend more money, but they have not really got into what benefits their members. At the end of the day, they represent doctors. I would like to hear more on their relationship with the Government on negotiations for a new contract, or the issues they face on a day to day basis with regard to restructuring their organisation to face the economic crisis. We only tend to hear about that at a later stage, when there are issues between the organisation and the Government.

There are issues with regard to the reconfiguration of health services, of which the greater focus on primary care is certainly one. Can the witnesses give us some kind of ballpark figure for how charges to private patients have been reduced over the past three years?