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 Jim DalyJim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposed amendment would introduce the word "serious" to the definition of poor professional performance in the Medical Practitioners Act, the Nurses and Midwives Act, the Pharmacy Act and the Health and Social Care Professionals Act. This definition was considered at length by the High Court and the Supreme Court following a judicial review instigated by Professor Martin Corbally regarding a finding against him by the Medical Council of poor professional performance. The Supreme Court decision confirmed emphatically that a threshold of seriousness exists for all cases involving poor professional performance. The court clarified that this threshold is provided for in the definition of poor professional performance in the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and is followed in the other health professional regulatory Acts. I am satisfied that the judgment leaves no doubt as to the interpretation of "poor professional performance" and that there is no doubt among the regulators who apply the threshold in arriving at their decisions.

I accept that amending the definition as suggested by the Deputy might appear to do no harm, but my preference is not to risk introducing unintended consequences to something that has been the subject of detailed court examination and on which there is now a substantial body of case law. I, therefore, do not support the amendment.

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