GPs and dentists will have to display price lists outside their surgeries if the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, accedes to a request from the director of the Office of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley.
Ms Foley said yesterday she was asking Ms Harney to make an order under the Consumer Information Act which would require doctors, dentists and allied health professionals to display their prices in the same way as hairdressers and restaurants are required to do under legislation.
"I would just feel that given there has been much mention of how GPs fees have increased and how it's hard to explain the difference between dental costs North and South, it would be useful if people could see a basic list of prices before going into their health professional," Ms Foley said.
"They will say prices vary for many reasons but a basic price list should be possible giving say the cost of an extraction or X-ray in the case of a dentist or the cost of an injection in the case of a doctor," she added.
Ms Foley said it was accepted that people did not always chose their doctor or dentist on the basis of price but that did not mean, she said, that they should not be offered this type of information before their visit. "And people who are moving house to a new area would benefit," she added.
"You can't have competition without people knowing what are the comparative prices."
Ms Foley's comments come at the start of a campaign by her office today to make consumers more aware of prices. TV and radio adverts will trumpet the message that "Price Awareness Pays". Being more price-aware would lead people to shop around, would increase competition and bring down inflation, she said.
The chairman of the GP committee of the Irish Medical Organisation, Dr James Reilly, said he couldn't see any doctor having an objection to Ms Foley's proposal.
"People should be aware of the costs before going into a surgery. It would be no harm for people to be aware there are differing charges for differing procedures," he said.
However the general secretary of the Irish Dental Association, Mr Donal Atkins, indicated he had some reservations about the proposal. He said that without examining a patient it would be very difficult to be precise about how much their treatment would cost. In such circumstances, a price list could mislead patients, he said, indicating that the price of a filling varied depending on its size and the time taken to insert it.
However, he suggested it could be possible to display a range of general fees for specific treatments such as a single surface filling.
A survey by Forfás last year indicated doctors' fees were among a range of goods and services which displayed "unusual price increases" during the euro changeover period, Ms Foley said. The study found doctors' fees had increased by 7.6 per cent during the changeover period.
A study commissioned by the Competition Authority this year found there was no reason for dentists not to advertise fees.