PART VI

Miscellaneous

56. —The Council may make and carry out arrangements with any person or body to assist the Council or any of its committees in the proper discharge of any of its functions.

57. —(1) The Council shall print, publish and place on sale copies of any register maintained by it at intervals of not more than five years and, in every year in which any register is not printed and published, the Council shall print, publish and place on sale a supplement to each such register.

(2) The most recently published copy of each register maintained by the Council and any supplements thereto shall, at all times, be made available for inspection by any person, during office hours, by the Council at its office and by the chief executive officer of the health board at the headquarters of any health board established under the Health Act, 1970 .

58. —Every reference to a registered medical practitioner contained in any enactment or any statutory instrument shall be construed as a reference to a person who is registered in the register.

59. —Every certificate which is required for any purpose by or under any Act for the time being in force (whether passed before or after this Act) to be signed by any physician, surgeon, licentiate in medicine and surgery or other medical practitioner shall on or after the establishment of the register be signed by a person who is registered in the register and no such certificate signed on or after the establishment of the register by a person who is not so registered shall be of any validity or effect.

60. —On and after the establishment of the register, no person shall be entitled to recover in any legal proceedings any fee or charge for or on account of any medical or surgical advice or attendance given by him, or any surgical operation performed by him, or any medicines both prescribed and supplied by him, unless such person was registered in the register at the date on which such advice or attendance was given or such operation was performed or such medicines were prescribed and supplied, as the case may be.

61. —(1) It shall be an offence for a person to—

(a) make any false declaration or misrepresentation for the purpose of obtaining registration in any register maintained by the Council under this Act or to aid and abet the making of any such false declaration or misrepresentation, or

(b) falsely represent himself to be a registered medical practitioner when he is not so registered.

(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) of this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

62. —The Council shall carry out such functions as may be assigned to it from time to time by the Minister in relation to the implementation of any Directive adopted by the Council of the European Communities relating to the practice of medicine.

63. —The Council shall carry out such functions, other than functions assigned to it by this Act, as may be assigned to it from time to time by the Minister in relation to medical education and training or other matters relating to the practice of medicine and the persons engaged in such practice.

64. —Every reference to the Medical Registration Council contained in any other enactment or any statutory instrument shall be construed as a reference to the Council.

65. —(1) The Minister may make regulations for the purposes of giving effect to any of the provisions of this Act.

(2) Every regulation, other than a regulation made under section 9 (2) of this Act, made under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House of the Oireachtas within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

66. —The Minister may by regulations make in respect of any statute, order or regulation in force at the passing of this Act and relating to any matter or thing dealt with or affected by this Act, any adaptation or modifications which appear to him to be necessary to enable such statute, order or regulation to have effect in conformity with this Act.

67. —Notwithstanding the repeal of the Medical Practitioners Act, 1927, effected by this Act, any order made under section 26 of that Act shall continue in force and effect until such time as it may be terminated by an order made by the Government under this section.

68. —(1) Notwithstanding the repeal of the Medical Practitioners Act, 1927, effected by this Act, the agreement specified in the First Schedule to that Act shall continue to have full force and effect until such time as the Minister, by order made under this section, declares that, pursuant to an agreement made between the Government and the Government of the United Kingdom, the said agreement shall cease to have effect.

(2) An order made by the Minister under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary.

69. —(1) It shall be a function of the Council to advise the Minister, either at the request of the Minister or on its own initiative, on all matters relating to the functions assigned to the Council under this Act.

(2) It shall be a function of the Council to give guidance to the medical profession generally on all matters relating to ethical conduct and behaviour.

(3) It shall be a function of the Council to inform the public on all matters of general interest relating to the functions of the Council.