METRO Thursday, December 17, 2009 D MENU THE Home Digest 4 Guilty Pleasures Celebrity gossip 6 World Digest 10 Letters 12 MetroLife Arts and entertainment 14-15 60 Second Interview Author John Irving 16 TV 16-17 Puzzles 18 Classifieds 19-21 Sport 22-24 Help keep Dublin clean and tidy for everyone by taking your Metro with you and recycling it TODAY: Cold, bright, with sunny spells and some showers. Max 4C TOMORROW: Very cold but mostly dry with isolated showers. Max 3C LOTTO WEDNESDAYS DRAW 9 10 18 23 31 40 Bonus: 19 Plus 1: 04 16 17 19 42 45 Bonus: 31 Plus 2: 01 07 14 20 30 31 Bonus: 22 METRO Weather Dublin Zoo welcomes its latest arrival a female giraffe calf. Visitors to the zoo can see the giraffe in the African Plains section at the zoo, which is open every day over the Christmas period except Christmas Day and St Stephens Day Picture: Robbie Reynolds A TALL ORDERGP reforms could cut cost of a visit THE cost of attending the doctor could be lower in the future as the Competition Authority moved to reform general practitioner services. The authority recommended ways of increasing the supply of GPs here and has secured permission for them to advertise their services. It said the cost of visiting a GP has risen rapidly in recent years, and people are delaying visits to the doctor as a result. It also found the number of GPs in Ireland is relatively low compared to most other European countries. The training process for GPs can result in students having to repeat training they have already completed and the regulatory body recommended this be changed to allow new doctors come on stream more quickly. It also found that restrictions on advertising by GPs were unnecessary and discouraged price competition. As a result of its findings the Medical Council has removed restrictions on advertising in its latest professional conduct and ethics guide for medical professionals. Partnership is off the table, insists union BY CON DOhERTY No prospect of restarting talks: Begg A UNION chief has denied the trade union movement is planning to oust the Government in response to last weeks Budget. David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said the Governments withdrawal from partnership talks earlier this month drove a stake through the heart of social part- nership as a concept. But despite comments from Irish Bank Officials Association president Larry Broderick, Ictu had not adopted a policy to try to remove the Government from power, Mr Begg insisted. Speaking after a meeting of the Ictu ex- ecutive council yesterday, Mr Begg said the comments were in line with the gen- eral feeling of the meeting, but that no such plan of action had been adopted. Earlier, Mr Broderick had told RT trade unions needed to respond to cut- backs with a strategic approach, focus- ing on local issues, non-cooperation and taking the Government out of power. The Ictu executive condemned the Budget as the single worst budget in the history of the state and unanimously adopted a motion describing it as a pro- foundly ideological exercise which at- tacked working people, the unemployed and families. Mr Begg said he did not believe there was a prospect of reinstating social part- nership following the Budget, which marked a watershed in how trade unions would deal with the Government. Ictu said it would engage with private sector employers regarding a pay deal ne- gotiated in September 2008, while it pre- pared a strategy to resist public pay cuts. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html