OPINION:Tánaiste is not living on same planet as rest of us in her view on fees charged by professionals, writes AILISH CONNELLY
I WONDER has she returned yet from Planet Mary, because a while back, by her postulations, we know our esteemed Mary certainly hasn’t been living on the same planet as the rest of us.
Mary Coughlan, where on earth did you get the notion that certain professionals – “engineers, architects, the legal profession, dentists and others” – have yet to feel the “chill wind of the recession”?
If ever there was a phrase guaranteed to prove to the Lilliputians that their leaders were disconnected from reality it should be this one.
“Professionals,” a word currently bandied about with a sort of shivering disdain, as if said professionals must snivel around apologising for their very existence, are suffering as much as other workers at the moment.
Oh yes, there are the few at the top of their trees who aren’t suffering one jot, such as the thousands per diem tribunal lawyers or the medical consultants who routinely cancel public clinics and haul in private patients to take their place in our publicly funded hospitals.
Funnily enough, the professionals doing well at the moment are in the employ of the State. There are a few thousand of these creatures still stalking the land, pausing at the drought waters of public funds long enough to high five with their compadres, the senior civil and public servants and TDs on large salaries and even larger expenses.
On Planet Mary the Tánaiste wasn’t talking about these big boys and girls, these untouchables; she was saving her ire for the bog-standard workaday professional with their micro business model, the local architect whose business has been decimated by the collapse in construction, the firm of solicitors regretfully letting staff go, or the small practice run by a single dentist who employs one or two staff.
Let’s take the example of dentists.
The Irish Dental Association has sent memos to all members to the effect that their livelihoods are under serious threat, what with unilateral reductions in medical card and other public payments and the severe squeeze on funds from private patients.
What the general public don’t understand, and what Planet Mary definitely doesn’t seem to want to understand, even though in her capacity as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment she should, is that there are huge cost implications to running any dental practice, no matter how small the business.
These are fixed costs; there are no Government grants flowing into the coffers of any dentist to pay for X-ray machines, diagnostic tools, materials, etc. For instance, a dentist told me it cost him €19,000 to have a vital piece of equipment repaired. It takes a hell of a lot of fillings to pay for that.
Statistics suggest dentists used to earn roughly €100,000 to €130,000 of taxable income per year. That was before our massive downturn, which has bitten 30 to 40 per cent from turnover in most practices. €80,000 is still a good income by anyone’s standards but to get this, dentists in general practice have patients that include the most vulnerable in society.
What would you demand to treat a trembling schizophrenic, to spend 20 minutes coaxing him down from the ceiling into the chair so that you could examine them? Or a stoned drug addict who suffers from Hepatitis C?
Or the confused elderly patient who wants to chat and can’t remember her long list of medication?
Or the erudite former bon vivant now on his uppers, who it transpires has an overwhelming fear of dentists and because of this needs complicated treatment and hours of your time.
You’d expect a fair whack. A dentist gets €33 from the HSE no matter how long the examination takes. This is supposed to cover running costs, insurance (multiples of thousands per year for dentists), staff, materials, tax, pension, etc. You do the maths.
Before Mary Coughlan calls for a populist plague on all professional houses, we could ask her why costs such as labour, heat, electricity and materials are so high for anyone trying to run a business?
Before Planet Mary tries to motivate the masses with cries of foul play, let me ask you this: who is it we turn to when our bones begin to ache, when our teeth start rattling in our skulls, or when the water is pouring down the walls of our houses dousing our possessions?
I’m married to one of these paragons. I can reassure anyone who cares to read this that, unlike Planet Mary, we wouldn’t be running a Lamborghini
lifestyle, or anything vaguely approximating it, on the proceeds of his “professional” job.
Come back to earth, Mary; not all professionals are out to fleece the public.
Ailish Connelly is a freelance writer. Vincent Browne is on leave