Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

——and therefore were not covered by the Competition Act. Surely something like the Equity case or the HSE decision to follow the Attorney General's advice should be legally reviewed before changing the Act. That is the obvious course of action.

There are a number of other means to resolve some of the problems which Labour Deputies have mentioned. With regard to Equity and similar issues concerning, in many cases, exploited self-employed workers, it may be appropriate to expand the protections to individuals in such employment — for example, to extend minimum wage benefits, other employment protections, PRSI benefits and PAYE allowances to self-employed contract workers. That kind of legislation would be warmly welcomed by Fine Gael. I urge the Minister to give consideration to such legislative changes.

In the case of pharmacists and general practitioners — and I am saying this as a member of the IMO — exemptions such as Article 81 can be sought and approved of on the grounds of a service's economic interest, which may potentially apply in this instance. In addition, there are other means by which the IPU dispute can potentially be resolved without this Bill. I note that in an e-mail to Deputies and Senators today the IPU's chairman, Michael McGuckian, proposed that talks on a new pharmacy contract under an independent chairperson should commence immediately. He stated that the purpose of these talks would be to reach an agreement on all aspects of the contract, including an appropriate pricing structure for the delivery of pharmacy services. This had been previously agreed with the HSE at a meeting in November. When agreement is reached on an appropriate pricing structure the matter can then be referred to the proposed new arbitration system which the Minister for Health and Children alluded to in the Dáil on 21 October 2007.

Fine Gael supports this suggested approach, although the matter of detailed structuring may have to be dealt with entirely by the arbitration system. The adoption of this suggested system would render the Labour Bill both irrelevant and redundant. However, other mechanisms could be considered; in particular the use of messenger model systems as are used in the United States in similar circumstances, or perhaps even the creation of a specific objective in law as is done in Canada.

While we in Fine Gael have concerns in respect of this Bill, it is motivated by genuine reasons and I respect the motives of the Labour Members in this regard. The failure of the Government to tackle issues concerning exploited self-employed people such as actors and journalists deserves no support. Equally the HSE's refusal to explore real mechanisms to negotiate with GPs and pharmacists deserves no congratulations. Fine Gael will abstain on the vote tomorrow.

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