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

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 36, to delete lines 30 and 31 and substitute the following: “33. Section 50 of the Act of 2005 is amended—

(a) in the definition of “disciplinary sanction”, by the substitution of “section 66(1)” for “section 65(1)”, and

(b) by the substitution of the following for the definition of “poor professional performance”:

“ ‘poor professional performance’, in relation to a registrant of a designated profession, means a serious error or failure of the registrant to meet the standards of competence that may reasonably be expected of registrants practising that profession;”.”.

The Minister will be aware that in 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of a Medical Council ruling made against consultant paediatrician, Professor Martin Corbally. A finding of poor professional performance was made against Professor Corbally by the Medical Council, and he challenged that finding all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court judgment was a landmark one. The five-judge court unanimously dismissed the Medical Council's appeal against the High Court's quashing of a council decision that Professor Corbally should receive an admonishment over a once-off error. The court said that a threshold of seriousness must be met for a medical professional to undergo a public inquiry. It further stated that it was neither fair nor just that someone like Professor Corbally was subjected to an inquiry with extensive publicity, some of which lacked fairness and moderation. Despite the landmark judgment, the case has not been legislated for. With that in mind, I have submitted this amendment to try to legislate across all the primary Acts to incorporate the Corbally judgment in the definition of poor professional misconduct. I would prefer if such legislative change came from the Minister, but that has not happened. We discussed this on Committee Stage. In the absence of a satisfactory response from him, I will press the amendment and the others that incorporate the Corbally judgment in the definition of "poor professional performance".

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