A Co Dublin home-birth midwife yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court against a decision to exclude her three expert witnesses from a hearing by the Fitness to Practise Committee of An Bord Altranais into an allegation of professional misconduct against her. The court reserved judgment.
Ms Ann O Ceallaigh, of Temple Crescent, Blackrock, a self-employed domiciliary midwife, is the subject of four complaints made to An Bord Altranais (nursing board). Two of the complaints were made by the master of a Dublin maternity hospital and the other two by the matron of another maternity hospital.
The High Court made an order which prevented Ms O Ceallaigh practising as a midwife but not as a nurse. The order was subsequently varied to allow her to provide midwifery services to certain named patients.
Ms O Ceallaigh failed in a High Court claim that the Fitness to Practise Committee acted unlawfully in not permitting two British midwives and an Irish research sociologist - Ms Mary Cronk, Prof Leslie Page, and Ms Marie O'Connor - to attend the hearings.
Yesterday, Dr Michael Forde SC, for Ms O Ceallaigh, said the issue was whether the board was entitled to exclude these experts. He said Ms O Ceallaigh had an outstanding record and a loyal following. The woman who was the subject of the complaint before the committee did not want the inquiry to go ahead.