A natural health therapist was called "a killer" by Independent Mayo TD Dr Jerry Cowley in the Dáil yesterday.
He was referring to Ms Mineke Kamper, from Bunnahowna, Mulranny, Co Mayo.
Calling for the regulation of complementary therapy, Dr Cowley, a GP, said: "I raised the matter of Ms Mineke Kamper, who has been practising for a long time, although I call it killing. I have been raising the issue of alternative practitioners since 2002 because it worries me.
"In Co Mayo, the local pathologists have proven beyond all reasonable doubt in the cases of Mr Paul Howie and Ms Jacqueline Alderslade that they died of treatable organic diseases due to alternative practitioners diverting them from traditional medical therapy or giving them a drug that may have led to their demise.
"These practitioners are unlicensed, untested and bogus. When they give medication, the State laboratory has proven several times that it is nothing but a placebo composed of starch and sugar with no active ingredients." He added: "While the second inquest into Mr Howie's death was being conducted, which Ms Kamper did not attend and was fined €6.35 subsequently, she was treating children and using a pendulum to decide what tablets they needed.
"Where is the legislation to protect the safety and health of our population from the menace of such rogue alternative practitioners? She has killed two people and more will follow. Even the welfare of the snails on a golf course are protected by our laws. What about the health and safety of our vulnerable citizens? Surely homo sapiens are as important as snails."
Minister for Health Mary Harney said a national working group was established by her predecessor in May 2003 to advise on future measures for strengthening the regulatory environment for complementary therapies. She had asked for the group's report to be expedited and expected to have it shortly.
Dr Cowley said people were dying. "We need to pass this legislation quickly. We must move beyond all the reports and advice." He added: "Paul Howie had cancer on his tonsil which was visible. I am sure that man would be alive today to see his children graduate had he been given the chance, but he was not. If a law regulating this area were in place, he would have got that chance, but he was not.
"Jackie Alderslade, an asthmatic, only needed to take the tablets she was prescribed, but she did not get them. This practitioner in question is all-pervading and so persuasive, she can convince people it is best for them to stay under her care." Ms Harney said she did not disagree with much of what Dr Cowley had to say. "Some of the therapists in question will be regulated under the provisions of the new legislation on health care professionals. It has completed its passage through the Seanad and is due to be taken in this House shortly.
"That will provide a regulatory framework for many of the professionals to which the deputy referred, but we need to go beyond that. It is not an easy area to regulate. We do not want to regulate excessively."
