Members of the public are to be asked in a new survey for their views on the Medical Council and how it polices the medical profession.
The announcement was made yesterday evening by Medical Council president Dr John Hillery, who said the perceptions of doctors would also be gauged in the study.
The council has long been criticised by the public for being too secretive and for taking too long to conclude Fitness to Practice inquiries into complaints against individual doctors.
Dr Hillery said: "We want to undertake a survey of the public and the profession as regards understanding the powers of the Medical Council and perceptions of both groups of the council because it struck me recently that we talk about what we think people think, but we actually don't have any solid data in Ireland."
The General Medical Council in Britain did a similar survey a few years ago.
"I would like our survey to be done in a medical research way rather than a market research way, and we are looking at who we might approach to do that at the moment," Dr Hillery added.
The Council's vice-president, Dr Colm Quigley, said the information gathered would inform how the council interacted with the public in future. It wanted to be "as transparent as possible", he said.
Meanwhile, at a press briefing following a meeting of the council yesterday, Dr Hillery said a council delegation would again visit Cavan General Hospital in December or January to make sure concerns it had raised following the death of nine-year-old Frances Sheridan were being addressed.
The child died in February three weeks after an appendix operation at the hospital.
A post mortem found she had died from complications arising from recent surgery.