Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

There are different situations. I am not providing in the legislation or in the Medical Practitioners Bill that there will be a representative of the Minister on the council. I gave consideration to that matter but ruled it out because, as is the case with other bodies, he or she would be there to represent the Minister. In my previous job the Minister had representatives on different boards and they reported to the Minister. The situation to which I refer is different from that which applies in this instance. The members of the council will not be representing the HSE or the IMB; they will be there in their own right by virtue of either their election, if they are members of the society, or their nomination. Their duty will be to the society.

At the press conference to launch the Bill I was asked why the council's meetings could not be held in public. Journalists would love everything to be held in public in order that they might report on matters of this nature. However, we must be pragmatic and sensible. Organisations must be able to do business in private. Could anyone run a business if all meetings involving boards of directors had to be held in public? Would it be possible to run political parties in such circumstances? We must be sensible in the way we legislate in these areas. We are discussing a regulatory body with enormous powers which will be in a position to effectively end people's careers and withdraw from them their livelihoods. The society must be able to operate in a professional way. We must be able to trust it and have confidence in those who will serve on it. I have no reason not to trust those individuals.

The society was handicapped because it was obliged to operate under extremely archaic legislation. As stated on a number of occasions, effectively there was no fitness to practise regime in place for pharmacists in Ireland. The Bill will provide the society with a modern regulatory framework and greatly enhance its authority and power to be able to intervene and initiate proceedings in the interests of both patients and the profession.