I wish to seek clarification from the Government side with regard to an issue relating to the Order of Business for the next week or so. Last week we were promised that Report Stage of the Protection of Children's Health from Tobacco Smoke would be taken in the House. When I withdrew my amendment to last Tuesday's Order of Business, it was on the basis that Report Stage of the legislation in question would be take place this week. Has time been made available to facilitate the latter?

There was understandable outrage last year when the editor of a current affairs journal in Thailand, Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for violating that country's lèse majesté laws, which make it an offence to tarnish the good name of any member of the royal family of Thailand. I was reminded of this matter when I recently discovered that the new GP contract which is being implemented in order to facilitate free medical care for those under six years of age contains its own little Irish version of the concept of lèse majesté. Said contract states that the GPs who sign it "shall not do anything to prejudice the name or reputation of the HSE". Put purely and simply, this is a gagging clause.

They do it themselves.

Yes, I accept the point from my learned colleague. This gagging clause should be withdrawn.

Hear, hear.

The only people who can damage the name of any public body are those who work for such a body. This matter must be seen in the context of the other issued I have raised in recent weeks regarding a respected medical journalist who wrote an article in which he made the same criticisms which have continually been made during the past year about the current policy on discretionary and non-discretionary medical cards and who received a letter in which he was threatened with legal action from a PR specialist acting on behalf of the HSE and informed of the consequences which might arise if he did not desist from blackening the good name of the organisation. I am delighted that Senator Bacik will be replying to the Order of Business and I would be grateful for her opinion on this. There should be a general principle whereby government bodies do not have a right to sue in respect of their own reputations. We live in a vibrant democracy, with a vibrant press and appropriately querulous journalists and concerned citizens, and we must protect the right of people to question the activities of the Government and its agencies. I would like the specific matter of the gagging order to which I refer to be brought to the attention of the Minister for Health. I am of the view that it should be removed from the contract.