The Minister for Health has defended the Government's primary healthcare policy by saying the strategy would "dramatically change" the way services are provided.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio this morning, Mr Martin said he was confident that in ten years time the strategy, to which the Government has committed over €1 billion, would be viewed as a "significant watershed" in health care.
This follows a press conference at Government Buildings yesterday at which the Minister was openly criticised by the Irish Medical Organisation President, Dr James Reilly, over the Government's failure to adequately resource the scheme.
In increasingly heated scenes, which signalled a new low in relations between the IMO and the Minister, Mr Martin accused the organisation having an agenda and engaging in a "PR stunt".
Dr Reilly said the Government had pledged €130 million a year to the primary healthcare strategy over a 10-year period from 2001, but that only €12 million was allocated the first year, €8 million the second year and no funding was allocated for it this year.
But Mr Martin claims these figures were "flawed" and in any case it would be impossible to divide the funding evenly over the 10 years.
This morning Mr Martin described the IMO's action at the press conference as "contrived" and accused the ogranisation of refusing to meet him to discuss "a wide-ranging review" of primary care.
He said: "The IMO seem to have a policy across all the fields from junior doctors to GPs that they do not want to engage in independent third-party arbitration".
At the conference yesterday the Minister was also criticised over income limits for medical card eligibility which one GP described as "obscene".
Mr Martin said although he agreed the income limits were too low, his Department had been seeking to engage with the IMO on a review of the scheme but that the union were refusing to negotiate on issues such as fees.
But Dr Reilly said the Minister could change medical card eligibility without any negotiations with the IMO.
