Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I do not disagree with much of what the Deputy said. Some of the therapists in question will be regulated under the provisions of the new legislation on health care professionals. It has completed its passage through the Seanad and is due to be taken in this House shortly. That will provide a regulatory framework for many of the professionals to which the Deputy referred, but we need to go beyond that. It is not an easy area to regulate. We do not want to regulate excessively.

I met a group of people last week whose loved ones were the victims of practitioners in the mid-west, one of whom was struck off the register in the United States and another who has been subsequently struck off the register here. Those practitioners do not come from the alternative therapy school. I was astounded at the charges set by these practitioners. One couple told me they paid €30,000 and that their very ill child of 15 years of age was on 60 drugs a day, and when he died they found many of the drugs under his bed because he was not able to take them. That is scandalous.

We will strengthen substantially the Medical Practitioners Act to give the Medical Council more proactive powers to carry out investigations in this area. However, there are difficulties in dealing with the alternative therapists, and we want to await the opinion of the expert group examining this area. That group is due to report at the end of the year. We have asked it to advance that timeframe and I expect to receive its report sooner than that. When I receive it, I will publish it and set about putting in place a system of regulation. We also need to ensure that the courses pursued are accredited by FETAC or HETAC to ensure that the training programmes meet a national standard and, if people are practising in this area, members of the public are entitled to know their level of the accreditation.

We all have a responsibility to try to discourage people from believing in the myth that there are some people who can cure people with serious cancer or other conditions, which unfortunately is what happened in the case of the people I met last week. I heard many cases and it was heartbreaking. It was hard to believe but when people are seriously ill, they will try anything. Not only were they disgracefully treated, they were financially ripped off at a vulnerable time in their lives. We need to strengthen the legislation in this area to protect the public. That is why I said in my reply that we will initiate a public information campaign in the health promotion unit in my Department to inform people of the dangers and issues in this regard.

The Coroner's Act needs to be updated, and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is doing that. I received a letter from the coroner in Mayo about the case to which the Deputy referred, highlighting the deficiencies in that legislation.

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