Health Minister Mary Harney is under fire from many sources concerning the Health Services.

I must say I sympathise with her, and her fellow PD members, for the very harsh comments made by consultant oncologist, John Crown, who went completely over the top in his references to the minister and her party.

But I must quibble with the minister on another issue. I sometimes wonder if my eyesight is even more deficient than I realise.

Certainly, an advertisement in a daily newspaper on Monday November 5, had me reading it over and over again. And I can still not make any sense out of it.

The advertisement read: “The Minister for Health and Children has made regulations setting the fees for services in relation to all marriages (civil and religious) available from the Civil Registration Service. A marriage notification fee of €150, payable on notification of intention to marry, is applicable to all couples with effect from November 5th, 2007.”

And notification of such marriages must be made not later than three months prior to the proposed date of marriage.

This, to me, seems an incredible amount of money for a couple to fork out ahead of the huge costs involved in getting married. I do not know what the previous charge was for such ceremonies. But I have no doubt that it is not a decrease on the previous figure. And it is disgraceful that the fee of €150 should apply from the very date that the advertisement appeared.

After all, if due notice had to be given to those who drive without a full licence to enable them to do their test—the forced Dempsey U-turn—then surely more adequate notice could have been given to couples planning this type of wedding.

If a couple applied on the previous Friday, the old fee applied, but overnight there is a new fee.

This is wrong and must be altered. It is blatantly unfair.