The Medical Council has elected its first ever lay committee chairperson. The move to appoint Ms Geraldine Feeney to the influential Ethics Committee comes halfway through the current council's five-year term of office.
Ms Feeney was elected to the chair of the committee yesterday. She was appointed to the Medical Council in 1999 by the then Minister for Health, Mr Brian Cowen. She is also a member of An Bord Altranais.
A member of the Fianna Fβil National Executive, Ms Feeney was recently appointed to the National Forum for Europe by the Taoiseach.
She has no medical or legal background but is known to have taken a particularly active part in the activities of the current council. A widowed mother of four, she has worked in marketing.
According to a senior Medical Council source, the election of Ms Feeney "sets the tone of the council which will be committed to openness and modernity" in the future.
The Ethics Committee carries out one of the key policy-making functions of the Medical Council, which is charged with protecting the public interest.
Members of the committee draw up professional guidelines which are issued to doctors. The ethics guide is usually updated during the lifetime of each council.
Because the present council has not yet carried out this task, Ms Feeney will be in a pivotal position to influence the shape of the new guidelines. She is expected to adopt a progressive stance on issues affecting modern medical practice.
Members voted for the new lay chairman by 11 votes to six. The Irish Times understands that 10 of these votes were from professional medical members of the council. It has 25 members in total, three of whom are not doctors.
A new Medical Practitioners' Act, to replace the 1978 statute, is overdue.
It is widely predicted that the new Act will provide for greater lay representation on the Medical Council.
"My election says more about the council as a body than it does about me as a person. It shows that it values a lay person's views and ideas," Ms Feeney said last night.