Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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261. To ask the Minister for Health his views on whether it is proper for a general practitioner to charge a medical card holder a fee of €60 to carry out a medical exam for a new driver licence; and the services that should be provided without charge by general practitioners to those with a valid medical card. [27679/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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GP services are provided free of charge to people who hold a medical card or GP visit card. Under the terms of the current GMS contract, GPs are required to provide eligible patients with ''all proper and necessary treatment of a kind usually undertaken by a general practitioner and not requiring special skill or experience of a degree or kind which general practitioners cannot reasonably be expected to possess.".

In addition, medical card and GP visit card holders may also be eligible for registration to programs for the management of long-term conditions, such as the Diabetes Cycle of Care, the Asthma Cycle of Care for children under 6 and the Chronic Disease Management program.

The GMS contract stipulates that fees for medical and GP visit card holders are not paid to GPs in respect of certain medical certificates which may be required, for example, "under the Social Welfare Acts or for the purposes of insurance or assurance policies or for the issue of driving licences". Any fees charged by GPs for services provided outside the terms of the GMS contract are a matter of private contract between the GP and their patients. There are no plans at present to include the completion of forms required for driving licence applications as a service to be provided to GMS patients under the GMS or GP Visit Card scheme.