The hospital superbug clostridium difficile, which has been a factor in a number of patient deaths, should be made a notifiable disease, Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday.
If it is a notifiable disease, hospital laboratories across the State would have to report each incidence of infection to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
At present the surveillance centre collects data from hospital laboratories on staphylococcus aureus infections, including MRSA, but it is not required to collect data on clostridium difficile.
However, HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm acknowledged last year that it was probably "a bigger killer" than MRSA.
While no official figures are available on the number of cases of clostridium difficile in hospitals each year, data released under the Freedom of Information Act to this newspaper last year indicated it was detected in 1,269 patients at 32 hospitals in 2005.
More recently, the bug - which causes a severe form of diarrhoea which can be fatal - has been mentioned at a number of inquests as a contributory factor in deaths.
Ms Harney told reporters in Dublin she understood the incidence of clostridium difficile in Ireland was lower than in Britain.
"I understand the incidence of it in Ireland is 0.5 per cent, and it's 1 to 2 per cent in England, so I'm pleased that it's at a much lower level in Irish hospitals. But of course we are concerned about all of these matters."
She said it was mainly related to overprescribing of antibiotics. A strategy was now in place to try and reduce antibiotic use by 20 to 30 per cent over the next five years.