Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of the Bill is to make it mandatory that all medical practitioners must provide evidence to the Medical Council of the level of medical indemnity insurance cover they hold. They will do this initially on first registering with the council and each year thereafter on renewal of registration. Medical practitioners will not be placed on the register of the Medical Council, that is, they will not be able to practise as a medical practitioner in Ireland unless this evidence is provided.The legislation gives the State Claims Agency, which has appropriate experience in the area of medical indemnity insurance, the power to specify the minimum levels of indemnity required for different classes of medical practitioner. This policy change requires that a new function be given to the State Claims Agency, under section 8 of the National Treasury Management (Amendment) Act 2000. There is currently no legal obligation on a medical practitioner to have medical indemnity insurance cover. As a result, some patients and the users of medical practitioners’ services may find they are unable to seek redress in the event of a medical mishap or negligent care from a medical practitioner.

The Bill was introduced on Second Stage in the Dáil on 6 December 2016. There were no amendments proposed by members of the Dáil. However, Regulation 95 of SI 8 of 2017, which was made by the Minister for Education and Skills in January this year and which transposed the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualification) Regulations 2017, amended the original text of sections 45 and 50 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007. This necessitated three technical amendments to the Bill on Committee Stage. Two amendments were required to section 7 and another amendment to section 8 of the Bill as passed by the Seanad, to take account of the new wording in those sections as a result of the changes made to the text to sections 45 and 50 of the original Act by the regulations.

I now wish to report on the amendments made to the Bill on Committee Stage in the Dáil.

Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 amend section 7 of the Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2014. This section amends section 45 of the principal Act to introduce a new section 45(1A) after section 45(1). Section 45(1A)(a) requires a medical practitioner to provide evidence, in the manner which the Medical Council may specify in rules, of the minimum of indemnity which applies to his or her practice.