A dispute between doctors and the Health Service Executive over the introduction of 200,000 doctor-only medical cards has been resolved at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).
Under the deal, the Irish Medical Organisation - which represents the GPs - has agreed to a full renegotiation of the medical card contract with the HSE.
The introduction of the cards - promised by Minister for Health Mary Harney last November - had been delayed because of a dispute over how much GPs would be paid when the doctor-only cardholder turned 70 and became entitled to a full medical card.
The head of the IMO's GP committee Dr Martin Daly told ireland.comthis afternoon that the organisation had requested a meeting with the HSE at the LRC in order to resolve the issue of the doctor-only cards.
Dr Daly said: "Clarifications were sought from management in relation to maintaining the integrity of the existing medical card schemes".
"Those clarifications have been made to the IMO satisfaction," he said.
"On foot of this agreement we are reconvening in the LRC next Tuesday to begin renegotiations of the medical card contract," Dr Daly said.
He said the IMO was now calling on the Minister for Health Ms Harney to introduce - with immediate effect - the 200,000 doctor-visit only cards.
"We also call on her to introduce the 30,000 full medical cards she promised last Autumn.
"These cards did not require negotiation with the IMO and only 176 additional cards have been introduced so far this year," he said.
The Tánaiste Ms Harney this evening welcomed the agreement, saying "with the doctor visit card, we will support four times the number of people as we could using the same budget for traditional medical cards."
Ms Harney said: "Adding this benefit to the traditional medical card will mean that approximately 1.4 million people will be able to access their GP free. "I believe strongly in graduated benefits. Too often, means tests have drawn a line between full service and no service, between full benefit and no benefit.
"We will, of course, continue to fund and develop traditional medical card services. Over €1.4 billion is allocated to funding medical cards this year.
Labour's Liz McManus also welcomed today's resolution but said "while the new cards will provide some small measure of relief to low income families, it still falls very far short of the promise made by the Government to bring another 200,000 people into the full medical card scheme."
Ms McManus said: "The services that will be available to those who will be getting the new GP cards will not be anything like those that were available to the 100,000 people who have had their medical cards taken away since 1997."
She said: "We all know that the cost of visiting a GP can be expensive but this is only part of the costs facing those who are ill.
"Prescriptions can be as expensive - or more expensive - than visits to a doctor, and there are other services and facilities available to those with full medical cards, that those with GP only cards will now have to pay for."
