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THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland is reviewing public submissions ahead of publishing new guidelines on fairness, objectivity and impartiality in news and current affairs which could see registers of interest being introduced for journalists.
In February, the BAI launched a draft report for public consultation which outlined proposals for the new guidelines.
That draft report included proposals requiring broadcasters to maintain a public register of interests under which journalists and other broadcasting personnel would have to provide information about some of their financial or business interests.
Under the provisions, “each broadcaster shall maintain a public Register of Interests in which personnel with an editorial role in news and current affairs shall enter details of all financial or commercial relationships that might be perceived as representing a material influence on them in, or in relation to, the performance of such editorial role, together with an indication or any individuals or companies to which the personnel in question may be deemed to owe a fiduciary duty.”
The deadline for submissions of responses to the draft document was 14 March, and Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte says that the BAI is currently considering those responses from the public “and will publish the finalised Code in due course”.
Rabbitte was recently asked in the Dáil by Labour TD Thomas Broughan whether he would consider introducing legislation to ensure that journalists working for national newspapers and broadcasters and comment “regularly on important issues of national policy” maintain a register of interests.
“I have no role in relation to journalistic standards in the print media,” Rabbitte replied.
“In this regard, I would note that the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman were established by industry to safeguard and promote professional and ethical standards”, he added, and said that they are formally recognised under Section 44 of the Defamation Act 2009.
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Dear ‘Irish Patient Association’.
The correct spelling of the word is ‘Families’, not ‘Familys’.
I’m starting to lose faith in the human race… I genuinely am.
There are some uneducated gombeens out there.
The brutal truth is vast majority of patients going to GPs don’t really need to be seeing a doctor. Anxious mothers bringing little johnny and Mary in for a check up when the fact that little Johnny and Mary are running around shows they don’t need to be anywhere near a doctor. Then you have elderly people who come in every week just needing a chat. Truth is the country would get by just fine with a more efficient GP service, and indeed fewer of them.
@Fred Jonsen: And what about hard working people with families who defer visits to a GP because of the costs. Then who later suffer from conditions that should have been diagnosed and referred to consultants who then tell them they should have caught the problem earlier? That is the reality for many families when cash is tight. Your badly conceived concept of pensioners going for a chat and people wasting GPs time is the sort of rubbish we expect from you in whatever weird parallel hateful universe you exist in.
@Fred Jonsen; you can’t expect a non medical parent to Triage their childrens symptoms and signs, and decide on appropriate course of action..
How much does a GP get for each citizen registered with them?
@Eddie O’Neill:
I would imagine that greatly depends on where the practice is.
442 might be a valuable practice in D4 but 1,200 could be unviable in a rural location.
@P.J. Nolan: it doesn’t, they only get paid by the state based on the medical card patients they have, it’s somewhere between €90-€120 per patient per year regardless of how often the come, can’t remember the exact figure
@Kim Jong Coin: I think that flat fee only covers,say six visits,after that it’s something like €21 or €22 per visit
@Kim Jong Coin:
Correct, the medical /GP card patients are based on a fixed fee per year but people that have these cards are much much more likely to repeatedly visit the doctor so the margin per patient will be a lot higher in D4
@Kim Jong Coin: Thanks Kim Jong Coin, so next question is how many of those 1200 patients on that GP’s books actually use the services of that GP in a given year.(Probably cannot be known but can anyone speculate)
Is the figure of E90 to E120 for both Medical Card Patients and Non, or is there a different payment for each?
Does that payment with respect to non-MC patients entitle them to any free visits or bloods for example?
I don’t begrudge a GP their salary or think that their skills were not hard earned but is there a more efficient way for the state to spend that money?
What is the states annual spend on GP fees?
Does a GP have other sources of income beside the state payment for patients, I presume home visits is 1 source, how much does a home visit cost?
@Eddie O’Neill: it depends on age and gende rofnpatinet but basic payment of about €70 per medical card payment no matter how many times they visit per year.
Previous research suggested the average private patient attends 2.2 times per year, the average medical card patient attends 5.5 times per year.
There is NO payment for daytime house calls. This policy has effectively stopped house calls as zero payment is not only non viable but damaging to a medical practice. Many patients are told to go to the Emergency department directly coding the state thousands of euro per patient.
A salary for a GP is usually made from the about hourly private patient that attends (very variable and dependent on area. A lot of expensive bills and tax of course still must be paid from this)
Many GPs stop taking on medical card patients at a certain number as it is just not viable at current payments to care for more.
@Ranty McCrank: Thanks Ranty, very interesting, great name and avatar by the way.
The GPs remind me of the farmers, in that they endlessly complain about how they are in a constant financial crisis. And yet there is no way on Earth that GPs will give up their medical card practice. And it is nigh on impossible for a new doctor to get onto the closed shop that is the medical card panel. And almost all GPs are Irish. Because the truth of the matter is that the medical card delivers a very healthy cheque each year to the GPs and the pharmacists too. And is there anywhere in the country a GP of non-Irish nationality with his/her own practice? Or two?
@Lovely Man: almost all gp’s are Irish because doctors aren’t enticed from abroad due to the FEMPI cuts. On the contrary, the amount of Irish gp’s leaving Ireland is staggering. To clarify another error in your statement, any doctor qualified in general practice can have a GMS panel list so it’s not a ‘closed shop’. Relative to the job that they do , GP’s are extremely good value for money. That is true.
@Lovely Man: yes the third of newly qualified GPs and indeed older established GPs that take themselves and their families to leave for Canada, Australia and New Zealand are putting on an amazing act to pretend GP in Ireland is non viable.
@Lovely Man: yea loads. Many GP’s just set up in private practice because medical card patients not viable. Seriously €70 per year for average 5.5 visits!!! €12 per visit, same as packet cigarettes!! You called out a Plummer recently?. And remember that €12 is before costs!!
@Lovely Man: Sorry to say to you but your comments are very poorly researched and factually incorrect in the main- and I am neither a GP or a farmer…What do you derive your income from? Because unless you have milk, bread, butter etc on your table in the morning, and hopefully neither you or any of your family become unwell, ill or have an accident/mishap- in which case you might just Not be able to get to Work and earn that income. Haven’t you heard of Interdependence within the human race? Yes! We all need each other…so stop knocking other professions/occupations…
Wait until they have to deal with abortions- you think a waiting time is bad now.
@murt de murty: fake news! Try again
Be great if you could actually read the report. Can’t see a thing.
In 2015, the fee varied from 43 euros to 434 euros per patient, depending on age and circumstances, per Dept, of Health site.
EM?? How come there are so GPs from Walkinstown, Crumlin on the Dublin South west list? Thats not Dublin South West??
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