A NUMBER of inquiries by the Fitness to Practise Committee of the Medical Council would effectively be sidelined pending the outcome of a legal challenge by a Cork doctor, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Kevin Feeney SC, for the Medical Council, said he was seeking a date for the case taken by Dr James Barry as a matter of urgency. He said a number of inquiries by the committee, including one due to begin today, would effectively be sidelined pending the decision.
The committee was holding an inquiry into allegations of professional misconduct against Dr Barry, of Glanmire, Co Cork.
Mr Feeney said that Dr Barry, in an appeal to the Supreme Court, had been granted leave for a judicial review under two points.
Firstly, it was claimed that the committee was not entitled to rule that its proceedings be held in private once the doctor had requested them to be held in public. Secondly, it was claimed the proceedings were conducted, and a decision made, in circumstances which were inconsistent with any objective separation of the function of the prosecutor and adjudicator of the tribunal.
The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Costello, said he would put the matter in for mention next Tuesday and in the meantime try to get a judge to hear the case next week.