Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Select Committee on Health

Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care) (Amendment) Bill 2019: Committee Stage

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 12:

In page 25, to delete lines 15 to 30.

I will illustrate this with an example. Some years ago, I represented a nurse who had been struggling with addiction. During the period of her addiction, she was guilty of poor professional performance but thereafter she had worked very hard and, with the support of her family, she got her life completely back together. She had two years working seriously hard at recovery and returned to work in a healthcare setting, but not to nursing. She had put everything behind her but then had to go through the fitness-to-practise hearing. It is something that could have been kept out of the public domain, and giving the fitness-to-practise committee leeway to do that was really important there where the case could be made that that was not who that person is now and their life is different now. This woman had made vast changes in her life. All that publication, indeed mandatory publication as outlined here, would have achieved would be to bring her back to where she was.

The purpose of the amendment is to open a dialogue but also to remove the compulsory element in order that it should not be mandatory and that they be allowed to exercise a high level of discretion, especially in minor incidents. We should also be mindful of the time it often takes to go to committee, with so much evidence to be gathered, that people can get back on track in the intervening time. In that case, and in others, I felt that publication served no purpose. It did not serve the public interest, it only undermined that woman and to bring her back to a place she had worked very hard to get out of. Where there is a public interest, I fully respect that it be done. That used to be the case.

In cases where discretion can be applied it should be. This is the purpose of this amendment.

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