The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has agreed before the High Court to suspend plans by its GP members to withdraw from certain services in protest at new fee cuts.
The undertaking applies pending the outcome of a full legal challenge to the planned withdrawal.
The IMO said it was offering that and other undertakings in order to ensure a speedy hearing of the action brought against it by the Competition Authority over the planned withdrawal.
It has also undertaken to remove from the IMO website a 10 July press release announcing the withdrawal decision and to inform its members of its undertaking within two days.
The undertaking applies pending the outcome of a full hearing of proceedings in which the Competition Authority alleges the planned withdrawal is in breach of competition law.
Douglas Clarke, for the IMO, told Mr Justice John Cooke the undertaking is without prejudice to the IMO defence of those proceedings, which would be "fully defended".
The authority's claims are "misplaced", he said.
The IMO was providing the undertakings rather than get immersed in a possibly protracted hearing of the authority's application for injunctions aimed at preventing the GPs withdrawing until the court had decided the matter.
Mr Justice Cooke also approved directions agreed between the sides for the exchange of pre-trial legal documents and returned the matter for further directions to 29 October.
The authority had set a deadline of midday on Monday last week for the IMO to publish an undertaking to reverse its planned action.
After that deadline, it received correspondence from the IMO's solicitors saying that would not be forthcoming.
That led to the authority bringing its proceedings alleging the IMO's decision of 8 July to withdraw the relevant services with a view to preventing the Minister for Health reducing the fees payable under the GMS contract is prohibited under both Irish and EU competition law.
The authority has said it believed the proposed withdrawal of the relevant services was directly linked to the decision of the Government to cut fees paid to GPs.
Withdrawing services, regardless of claims they may be free or pro bono, is viewed as an attempt to directly or indirectly fix the fees paid to GPs by the Government under the GMS contract, the authority said.
It said: "Self-employed GPs are subject to competition law, as they are private businesses, unlike employees who may act collectively, represented by a union and are not subject to competition law."
In a statement after today's hearing, the IMO said allowing GPs the right to be represented by their trade union in their negotiations with Government on services covered by the medical card and other services for public patients "is a matter of fairness and logic".
