The Government is seeking to include the banks and building societies in a six-month, across-the-board freeze on all professional fees in an effort to curb spiralling inflation.
However, as the extent of the Government's campaign to rein in price rises became clear yesterday, opposition was already emerging from hospital consultants who indicated they would not be reducing or capping medical fees as a result of a planned meeting with the Minister for Health tomorrow.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA) general secretary, Mr Finbar Fitzpatrick, said consultants were facing increases of up to 10 per cent on the running costs of their practices. Medical indemnity charges in particular were running well ahead of inflation and rising by double figures for some specialities.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, confirmed yesterday he would be meeting the Irish Bankers' Federation (IBF) on Thursday to ask it not to increase fees and other charges. He is also to talk to building societies about mortgages.
With new inflation figures to be published today, all Ministers have been told to order bodies under their control not to raise charges. They have been asked by the Taoiseach to report on progress to Cabinet next week.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr McCreevy said he also wanted to discuss the level of credit being offered to customers in talks with the financial institutions. He said he was taking the initiative as part of the Government's strategy to halt the rise in inflation.
An IBF spokesman said its delegation, which will include representatives of AIB and Bank of Ireland, would "listen carefully" to what Mr McCreevy had to say.
However, existing regulations already require financial institutions to notify the Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley, of price rises, and she has the power to veto or press for reduced charges in consultation with individual banks.
Efforts to curb lending growth, particularly mortgage lending, may also prove problematic for the Government under EU competition law. A plea to the main financial institutions to reduce the amount of money they are lending is unlikely to receive a positive response from banks which do not want to hand a competitive advantage to EU counterparts operating here.
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, will be meeting two medical organisations tomorrow to ask for a voluntary freeze on private fees while the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, is to meet the Law Society to impress upon it the need for "social responsibility".
It has been learned that meetings have taken place in the last week between senior officials in the Department of the Environment and bodies representing architects, building surveyors, suppliers of building materials and engineers about keeping costs down.
A meeting with the Society of the Irish Motor Industry to discuss motor costs is also planned in the next few days.
The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association calculates that with approximately 1,100 consultants in private practice in the State, medical charges will, at most, add 0.025 per cent to the consumer price index.
According to Mr Fitzpatrick the consultants' room to manoeuvre was further restricted by an investigation into medical fees by the competition authority. "Any attempts by us to cap or fix fees could result in censure by this body," he said.
The request by Mr Martin to meet the consultants' representative body follows his weekend decision to refuse a 9 per cent fee rise to the VHI.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, last night accused the Government of opting for controls rather than competition in its efforts to keep inflation down. He said it was going back on the very formula which created economic success.