Mary Henry (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State. I will talk about the last part of the motion:

[that Seanad Éireann] supports the Competition Authority and the Director of Consumer Affairs being given additional priorities and tasks to boost this counter-inflationary policy, including:

(i) more aggressive implementation of competition policy, including dealing with sheltered sectors where unnecessary barriers to entry exist,

and

(ii) accelerating the studies of professional services, which were initiated by the Competition Authority at the request of the Government on foot of the OECD review of Ireland's regulatory regime.

I will try to stick to my last remark and discuss the medical profession. It is very odd to hear the word "competition" used so much in dealing with the medical profession because most of us involved in it feel that if only we could have a bit more competition, life might be a bit more bearable. Far too many doctors are far too busy and many, unfortunately, are now taking early retirement. I do not think this has been taken into account, nor has it been taken into account by those who would address the problem.

Thirty per cent of all doctors are general practitioners and work, on average, a 79 hour week, of which 46 hours is on calls. I note that this all comes from the report we are discussing. A total of 39% of general practitioners said it was extremely difficult to get help. Another 33% said it was very difficult. In other words, 52% were having terrible trouble in getting help to run their practices. We must take into account that there really is a shortage of supply rather than a need for competition. This has not been dealt with in the report. Certainly, the price of a visit to a general practitioner seems to be about €35 but is more expensive in town than in the country. The increase in the price of a consultation with a general practitioner is larger than inflation but one thing on which the Minister for Health and Children and I agree all the time is that medical inflation has been much larger than general inflation, of which, unfortunately, our old bugbear, insurance, is a very important part.