Seanad Report:The statement issued by three consultant obstetricians, following the Medical Council's upholding of a finding of professional misconduct against them, was rubbing salt into wounds which were still festering, a Fianna Fáil member of the House said.
Geraldine Feeney congratulated the council on its "finding" and said she had been astonished at the one-line statement "where the three wise men say they are bitterly disappointed at the finding and they find it fundamentally wrong".
As someone who had sat on the Neary inquiry, what the statement said to her was that they "find nothing wrong with their practice of finding the man not guilty of wrongdoing when the rest of us have all found him guilty".
She added: "I query their judgment and what kind of minds they have."
Ms Feeney said she hoped that everyone in the House would support Minister for Health Mary Harney when it came to dealing with the issue of the contract for consultants.
David Norris (Ind) said that a report about the handling of the Neary matter had spoken of collegiality and compassion. "Those qualities were not shown to the patients, but to the doctor, who has been found unfit to practise. Three of the most eminent doctors in this country would have sent that man back with a clean bill of health and a note stating that the patients were lucky to have him. That is an insulting approach. It shows a total lack of moral courage."
Acting Leader of the House John Dardis (PD) said that one of the things underlined by the finding was the questionable practice of people's peers adjudicating on their colleagues. That was obviously undesirable.
Maurice Cummins (FG) demanded to know why there was still a 2 per cent Government levy on all insurance policies when the need for it had apparently ceased about 14 years ago. The levy had been introduced following the collapse of the PMPA in 1984. It was his understanding that "the debts for PMPA were completed in 1993". But the levy continued to be collected.
Mr Dardis said that he would try to find out what the situation was.