Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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173. To ask the Minister for Health the reason the medical card scheme does not cover the cost of providing a GP medical cert, which is a requirement for over 70-year-old applicants to a renew a driving licence (details supplied). [52388/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Under the terms of the current GMS contract, GPs are required to provide eligible patients, persons who hold a medical card or GP visit card, with ''all proper and necessary treatment of a kind usually undertaken by a general practitioner...". Eligible persons are not subject to any co-payments or other charges in respect of such services including GP consultations.

The HSE reimburses GPs for services provided under the GMS contract to medical and GP visit card holders. The contract stipulates that fees 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" are not covered by the contract. 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 patient.

The requirements for the submission of a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner with driving licence applications for certain categories of persons are governed by the National Driver Licence Service under the Department of Transport. As GPs are private practitioners, it is a matter for the relevant Department or body under the aegis of a Department whether medical certificates that are required by them should be provided without charge.