Families who have been wrongly accused of child sex abuse called for a statutory inquiry last night.
A public meeting in Dublin followed the finding of the medical council's Fitness to Practice Committee of professional misconduct by Dr Moira Woods. This relates to her diagnosis of sexual abuse of children in three families in the 1980s.
In an emotionally charged meeting, Mr Eddie Hernon, who brought the original complaint against Dr Woods, called for a public statutory inquiry into the events so they could be brought into the open. Ms Mary Cleary of Amen, which provides a refuge for men claiming to be wrongly accused, said Mr Hernon was a prince among men. Since she had set up Amen she had received 20,000 calls and she said one in three or four claimed they had been accused falsely or threatened with false allegations of sexual abuse of children or their mothers.
"It can happen to any man on any day in any home, in any street, in any town in Ireland," Ms Cleary said. Mr Liam O'Gogain, chairman of Parental Equality, called for openness.
The Medical Council process had been in camera in a gossip-ridden society where gossip moved faster than it did on the Internet. "An openness and truth is what we want. The facts are good enough," he said.
In Parental Equality they had thousands of people calling them. "I refuse to be boxed into a situation where men and women are forced to fight with each other".
Mr John Waters, an Irish Times columnist, said fathers had a long and arduous battle ahead of them.