Mary Henry (Independent)

The Minister wants the amendment withdrawn. I put down the amendment on the interpretation section yesterday morning and this is exactly the same except that I have narrowed it to include only section 11 to avoid the problem of what is said in section 24. I am not happy about the Minister's statement that the board will make sure practitioners are appropriately qualified because, as I explained yesterday, one can call oneself a medical practitioner once one does not say one has an MB or an MD from a university. I am not happy about the Minister saying "appropriately qualified". The nub of the problem is that people from whom the board may be prepared to take reports do not have the responsibility that medical practitioners under the 1978 Act do, in that they can be hauled before Senator Feeney and her colleagues on the Medical Council. I am not happy about the Minister's reply at all.