Labour leader Pat Rabbitte has demanded that doctors' fees be capped.
Accusing the Government of utterly failing to tackle the problem, he said that it had shrunk the percentage of the population on medical cards to an all-time low.
"Its GP-only card is another abject failure. It has done nothing to control doctors' fees. There is, in my view, a compelling case for a maximum prices order to prevent further hikes in GP fees in the short term."
He said that since September 1997 the Consumer Price Index had shown that doctors' fees, covering both GPs and consultants, had increased by 97 per cent. During the same period, the CPI as a whole had increased by only 53 per cent, while over a similar period wages increased by only 61 per cent.
"GPs were among the worst offenders during the euro changeover, when a £20 or £25 fee became a €40 fee, and now in many place it is a €50 or €60 fee," he added.
"I know that there are many doctors who charge less. I have no doubt that doctors have seen their costs increase. But the rate of increase in GP fees is not sustainable."
Mr Rabbitte claimed that the present level of fees charged by GPs was a major disincentive to people on modest incomes to see their family doctors. "There is a widespread unmet need among our communities for medical care, and the obstacle is too often the fees charged."
He was speaking in the debate on his party's Private Member's motion opposing the privatisation of the health services. He said that plans by Minister for Health Mary Harney to use expensive tax-breaks and invaluable State lands to build super private clinics was "an obscenity".
Never mind, he added, the "nonsense" that building clinics would free up beds for public patients. That was unlikely to come to pass, not least because the consultants were unlikely to agree to it.
A Government amendment to the motion, endorsing its policy, was carried.
