Install tachometers to curb ministerial speeding, say doctors

IMO conference: Doctors at the annual meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation have called for the installation of tachometers in ministerial cars.

Proposing a motion requesting the Taoiseach to ensure that a road speed recording device be fitted to his own and all ministerial cars, Dr Declan Bedford, a specialist in public health medicine with the North Eastern Health Board, said: "It is disgraceful that Ministers have been repeatedly found to be exceeding the speed limit."

Dr Bedford said there was no justification for such speeding, which ran counter to the change of behaviour by the general population since the introduction of the penalty points system.

"The example given by ministers is a bad one and is counter-productive to the effort being made to reduce deaths and injuries on the roads."

Dr Fenton Howell, a past-president of the IMO, criticised the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, for failing to implement the national health strategy.

Dr Howell said: "The Minister for Health's efforts to bring about real and lasting improvements to health services are being terminally damaged by the failure of the Minister of Finance to provide finances to fully implement the national health strategy."

"It is pointless laying out any strategy unless it is costed at the time of publication. Funds must be made available and multi-annual budgeting introduced so as to allow for a timely and guaranteed implementation of the health strategy."

A conference motion proposed by junior hospital doctors, asking that patients be treated in settings which preserved their privacy and dignity, was also passed. "Barring sustained investment in the health service, soon the only option for hospitals will be to treat patients in bunk beds," Dr Timothy Hinchey said.