Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In terms of posts being paid for by pharmaceutical companies, we do not want to discourage charity or philanthropy. Certainly, that is something we all laud, applaud and encourage. All we are saying is that in the event of such posts being paid for, that it would be publicly declared. That would be the purpose. It is not actually defined in this Bill but I think that has been mentioned in the debates in the Dáil, on Second Stage, that there would be a requirement to declare these things in order that people know. However, there would be nothing beyond that.

In terms of scrutiny of clinicians and researchers, 60 Senators and 158 Deputies have to fill a statutory declaration form every year. It is not that onerous. This certainly would not even be as onerous as that. Anything with a value of more than €600 would have to be declared. If a person attending a conference abroad is subsidised, it would have to be worked out if there was a value in that subsidy, and if it was greater than €600, that person would have to declare it. Is that onerous? I do not think that would be overly difficult for people to do once a year when they are registering with the Medical Council. It is important, if people are travelling abroad and going to conferences and if they are being paid for by pharmaceutical industries or medical device companies, that it is declared. There is nothing beyond that. We do not need to have any further detail other than the fact that it is declared. I hope that it would not be onerous.

In terms of research, when we look at where we are in terms of research in this country, there have been great strides made in recent years. It has been the policy of Governments in general and even more so in recent times in the whole area of tax reliefs for research and development. There is a general acceptance that we are reasonably good at attracting these companies into the country and we are reasonably good at the co-operation between clinicians, universities and industry in terms of research and innovation. We have been very good at that until recently. There has been, it could be argued, a bit of slippage in recent times. Primarily that is about funding, reimbursements of drugs, clinical trials and all that flows from that. At the heart of all of this is the requirement to know that there is absolute transparency. If academia and pharmaceutical companies are coming together and clinicians are actively involved as well, we are asking that they declare an interest and nothing beyond that. We do not need to know the detail. If it is more than €600, it must be declared.