Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I welcome the coverage in today's newspapers of the report by the Competition Authority on certain IMO practices in regard to price-fixing for doctor services. I recently learned of a more disturbing aspect which I would like to put on record. Doctors receive a flat fee of, I understand, €700 or €800 per annum for visiting their patients in nursing homes.

However, there is a practice, and I do not know how widespread it is, whereby doctors do not attend these patients and some nursing homes are obliged to provide doctors at their own expense. The doctor examines the patient, telephones the patient's doctor, advises the doctor of their diagnosis and a prescription is then faxed to the nursing home. The medication is administered to the patient without the patient's doctor having seen him or her, yet the patient's doctor claims his or her fee. Such practices must be highlighted and rooted out. I hope this will happen. I intend to write to the IMO about this practice.

I welcome the attempts by the Minister for Transport to address the problems with driving tests. He is hoping the private sector can be involved in this process from 1 July. I strongly condemn the fact that today, 1,300 young drivers cannot sit their tests because the driver testers are having a meeting to discuss whether they will accept the LRC proposals to deal with the backlog in driving tests. Will there be reform in the system? Young people are asked to pay high insurance prices. Are the driver testers helping in this situation? They are not.