Remote Hearings in Medical Council Fitness to Practise Committee Proceedings in the Absence of a Legitimate Aim: An Unconstitutional Infringement on Fair Procedures?

• Date: 01 January 2024

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Remote Hearings in Medical Council Fitness to

Practise Committee Proceedings in the Absence

of a Legitimate Aim: An Unconstitutional

Infringement on Fair Procedures?

KEVIN KELLY BL*

Introduction

e Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 was

enacted on 6 August 2020 to make provision for bodies conducting hearings under

enactments to do so remotely, having regard to the risk to human life and public

health posed by the spread of COVID-19. In the context of civil proceedings,

section 11 of the Act provides that court hearings may proceed remotely while

section 31 provides that the government can nominate designated bodies who can

conduct remote hearings unless such a decision would create an unfairness for the

parties or where it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.

On 24 November 2020, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly issued Statutory

Instrument 533/2020 (‘SI 533/2020’),1 which nominated eight designated bodies

pursuant to section 31, including the Medical Council.

e Medical Council is the regulatory body for doctors in the Republic of Ireland

and has a statutory role pursuant to the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 (as

amended) in protecting the public by promoting the highest professional standards

among doctors practising in Ireland. e Council is responsible for investigating

complaints against doctors and facilitates a statutory process in investigating

allegations of poor professional performance and professional misconduct

against doctors. is process triggers the functions of the Council’s Preliminary

Proceedings Committee and Fitness to Practise Committee, a committee of inquiry

that investigates complaints and prepares a report for the Medical Council. e

Medical Council then relies on the ndings of the Fitness to Practise Committee’s

report and accordingly imposes sanctions on doctors where appropriate to do so.

Section 71 of the 2007 Act provides for the range of sanctions to be imposed,

which include suspending a practitioner’s registration for a specied period,

cancelling a practitioner’s registration or prohibiting a practitioner for applying

for a specied period for the restoration of the practitioner’s registration. e

* Barrister–at–Law.

1 Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 (Section 31) (Health)

(Designation) Order 2020, SI 533/2020.

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