Colm Burke (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for bringing forward the Bill. I agree it is extremely important to have transparency. However, it is also important for all parts of the health care sector to co-operate.

Sometimes for a matter to progress, such as funding a nurse in a particular facility, it is important to highlight that the service being offered would not be offered except for the availability of the nurse. It is one of the problems in areas of rare diseases and where small numbers of people affected by a particular medical complaint. If a medical consultant were trying to progress a particular area only to find that the scrutiny was too severe from his point of view, would it then put a restriction on trying to develop new services? While there is a need for transparency, I am concerned that people might shy away from getting involved in this area.

On advances in medicine, in fairness to nursing, medical and administrative staff, they have pushed out the boat themselves rather than it coming from national level. Sometimes they do need the assistance of a third party to push that boat out. Can we be overly restrictive as well? Does the witness have a concern about that?

I refer also to conferences abroad, which sometimes are subsidised by medical suppliers or medical pharmaceutical companies. There are advantages but there is also the disadvantage in that the practitioner may then feel an obligation to use that particular product. Is it intended that this Bill would also cover something like that? I am not saying where the trip is totally free, as in a person goes to a conference in the UK on a particular area of medicine and new advances are disclosed at that conference. The drug company might subsidise the flight or the accommodation. Is the witness saying that under this Bill that will have to be fully disclosed? We might get some clarification on that.