Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 51:

In page 16, to delete lines 5 to 8.

Amendment No. 51 seeks to delete lines which force doctors to refer. This speaks fundamentally to the right of doctors to conscientiously object and to the whole reason we are debating this issue. Doctors should not have to refer against their will. We also must ask what "refer" means. It might mean that the life of one of the two patients a doctor is treating will be ended, which is an important reason for putting this amendment forward. Many doctors have a fundamental issue with this approach, but the Minister has steadfastly refused to meet those doctors. There was a call for an EGM, which was tailor-made to be held after the debate finished last Thursday, but that did not happen. We saw what happened at the EGM. It is not for me to tell the Irish College of General Practitioners how to organise itself, but democracy was shut down in that organisation. Indeed, Dr. Kirsten Fuller, who is an excellent GP from County Tipperary, was one of the people who lead the walk out to fight that provision. Dr. O'Regan from Kerry and many others were also involved. They have not been listened to or engaged with, and conscientious objections have not in any way been dealt with. Any degree of consultation might have allayed their fears and allowed the Minister to find a wording that would have pacified many of those genuine GPs who have taken the Hippocratic oath in the first instance and who strive every day to give a service.

Many GPs work in country areas where there is no Caredoc or out of hours service. Those doctors and their families answer calls at all times of the day and night; their duty of care and desire to try to save lives is their motive at all times. They have a genuinely held fear that they are going to be forced to refer, and are worried about what that referral means. If the Minister or his officials had engaged with those doctors in any way we might have had clarity and a better understanding of this Bill, and we would not have 700 or 800 of them threatening not to co-operate in any way with this legislation. There is a scarcity of GPs in urban and rural areas and few GPs are even applying to run a practice. They are dealing with a contract that is almost 50 years old and which has not been renewed. The Minister chose to engage at a senior level with the two doctors' organisations and did not listen to the members of those groups. The organisations did not listen to their members either; democracy has been damaged there as well. Those organisations are able to talk for themselves.

I am here to speak on behalf of the many doctors working at different levels who contacted me about this legislation and to protest at the sheer speed with which it is being rushed through the Dáil. People here are talking about the rights of staff. I am hearing that staff are being told they have to work all night tomorrow if this Bill passes tonight in order to get the Bill through the Seanad. We can cry about workers' rights and complain all we like, but we are now making people work unreasonable hours. We are now making staff here work unreasonable hours because of unreasonable sittings. I do not know if that is definitely happening but that is what I have been told. It shows little care about the staff here and their families who have to stay up working late. I include the Senators, those working in committees, the secretariat, ushers and indeed all the people who attend on the House.

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