Minister for Health Mary Harney denied yesterday that ethical direction would be given to the Medical Council by the Government under the provisions of the Medical Practitioners Bill 2007.
Claims that the Bill would result in the Medical Council being "an arm of the Government" were dismissed by Ms Harney, who said the only directions that can be given to the council are on policy issues.
The Minister told Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey and Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus, during a debate on the committee stage of the Bill yesterday, that there is no question of guidelines being given to the Medical Council on ethical issues such as stem-cell research and end-of-life issues.
"You cannot force any medical practice on doctors, or force them to do something that they don't want to do," said Ms Harney. "Irish law has always supported people having conscientious positions on ethical issues." Policy matters which the council can be directed on would relate to education and training, or for example, if there was a shortage of certain expertise, asking the council to speed up the registration of doctors from abroad with that expertise.
Under the Bill, the majority of the Medical Council's 25 members will be lay people. There will be 12 doctors and 13 lay people on the council.
Some of the lay people are likely to be representatives of patient groups, but there will also be representatives of the nursing profession, the Health Service Executive, a representative of the Health Information and Quality Authority, a representative of the Independent Hospitals Association of Ireland and a representative of the Health and Social Care Professionals Council.
Five lay people will be nominated by the Minister for Health. Until now, the majority of the council's members have been doctors and the medical profession wanted this to continue.
There was confusion yesterday about an amendment to be tabled to the Bill to reverse the lay majority provision and to have a medical majority instead.
Last night Ms McManus said that due to the huge amount of health legislation going through the Oireachtas, an amendment had mistakenly been drafted but had not actually appeared on the order paper.
She said it was never the intention to officially table that amendment.
"There is so much legislation being guillotined at the moment, I cannot guarantee as health spokesperson that I can fulfil my role properly. It is not satisfactory to be fast tracking so much important legislation at the moment."
The Bill passed committee stage and is expected to be passed into law before Easter.