SIPTU, the union representing the nursing staff at Monaghan General Hospital, has criticised the North-Eastern Health Board report on the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone, saying that it "simply hung a nurse out to dry".
In a strongly-worded letter to the chief executive of the board, Mr Paul Robinson, SIPTU branch secretary Mr Neil McGinn said that the report "tried to unjustly apportion blame on individuals and away from any shortfalls in the service being provided and in the procedures and protocols which were in place".
The letter was also sent to the Minister for Health.
Mr McGinn has called for a public apology to the nurse, referred to as Nurse B, whose reputation, he said, had been "damaged irreparably".
"There is no such thing as anonymity in a rural community. I want an immediate public apology to her and a retraction of the contents of this highly dishonest report," he said.
Mr Paudge Connolly, the Cavan/Monaghan TD who was elected on health issues, said that the second, independent report on the incident had been the appropriate response to the health board's findings. "It rubbished the health board report and in my view that is a strong vote of confidence for the staff in the hospital."
Mr Connolly said that the health board report "carried no credibility at this point in time".
Mr McGinn said he was particularly concerned at the health board report's statement that Nurse B said she did not accompany Ms Denise Livingstone, the baby's mother, in the ambulance because she suffered from travel sickness.
"I wish to categorically state that . . . at no time did Nurse B suggest this was a reason for not travelling on the night. This is only one example of what appears to be a deliberate attempt to make a scapegoat of her," he said.
At the interview, the nurse had said that the only reason for not travelling with Ms Livingstone was that the question never arose. It was not her call and she was not asked to go, Mr McGinn added.
The union wants a public apology and a retraction of the content of the report, which it has labelled as "highly dishonest, immoral and illegal".
The report was drawn up by two senior risk managers who told the nurses that they were putting together a chronology of events and that they "had no function in drawing conclusions or in apportioning blame", according to Mr McGinn, who was present at the interview.
When the health board report was published it was met with "disgust" by the union, which maintained that the differences between what was said at the interview and what was published were not reconcilable.
Mr Connolly is to raise the report at next Tuesday's meeting of the board.
A spokeswoman for the NEHB said that all responses to both reports would be heard at that meeting.