THE Medical Council inquiry into complaints of professional misconduct against Dr Moira Woods will be held in public, its fitness to practise committee ruled yesterday.
The unprecedented move followed submissions on behalf of one of the parents who say they were wrongly accused of child sexual abuse in the late 1980s. Dr Woods is entitled to appeal the ruling to the High Court. She said yesterday afternoon that she was awaiting advice from her lawyers.
A warning that the hearings could turn into a "media circus" came yesterday from Mr Kieran McGrath, editor of The Irish Social Worker.
If there is no appeal, the public hearings will begin in January. In all, parents from five families have made complaints. One of the five cases will be heard privately at the request of the family.
Dr Woods has denied all charges of professional misconduct.
The fitness to practise committee is chaired by Prof Patricia Casey of the Mater Hospital. In a statement, she said the committee had decided by a majority to hold the hearings in public. It had taken into account a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of a French doctor and also a ruling by Mr Justice Geoghegan of the High Court which stated that the committee had discretion to decide whether hearings should be public or private.
The statement said the committee could review its decision at any time and warned it would do so if any of the people involved with the inquiry give information to the media.
Mr McGrath, who is senior social worker at the child abuse validation unit in Temple Street Hospital in Dublin, said that for professionals such as Dr Woods public hearings represented a double edged sword. "On the one hand, she may want to indicate she has nothing to hide by welcoming a public hearing," he said. "On the other hand, she has to be wary of a very complex issue being turned into a media circus.
The first case due to be heard is that of Mr Edward Hernon, chairman of Vocal (Victims of Child Abuse Laws) Ireland which is seeking a public inquiry into the operation of the sexual assault unit of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Dr Woods was the first director of the unit.
The complainants include parents whose children were returned to them by the courts.
Dr Woods was the doctor who mainly validated allegations of abuse until the new specialist units went into operation at the children's hospitals in Temple Street and Crumlin, Dublin, in the early 1990s, followed by a unit at St Finbarr's Hospital in Cork.