Ms Caroline Spillane:

With regard to Senator Power's comments about independence, in the presentation I stated that independence is one of the hallmarks of the process the Medical Council would use. All the work we do on accreditation is published on our website. As I outlined earlier, the accreditation team, is not just picked from the Medical Council but is picked from a wide pool of international experts, who in turn are drawn from independent organisations. We select the team based on specific criteria in order that we know that when an accreditation is undertaken in Ireland or abroad, it is done in an independent and objective fashion.

The Medical Council will undertake a programme of accreditation of RCSI Bahrain this year if circumstances do not change. Much of what has been discussed this afternoon underpins the necessity for an accreditation of the standard we have outlined to be undertaken and for that to be independent, objective and transparent. I have outlined the process the Medical Council will use and the choices before it consequent on receipt of a report. Everything the Medical Council will consider in respect of this task will be available for public scrutiny and we would be very happy to come back before the committee and explain the process later in the year if that is appropriate.