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The Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill 2013 was recently published by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr Brendan Howlin, T.D. The purpose is stated as a Bill to “provide for the commitments in relation to freedom of information contained in the Programme for Government.”

Did you know that nearly 500 million tweets are sent every day? Twitter along with other forms of social media, whether to your liking or not has become a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of modern day society. Twitter provides a global platform to all its users to voice their thoughts and opinions, however valuable.

The Medical Council has confirmed that it is now Council’s policy to request all doctors who are the subject matter of a complaint to participate in an audit so that the Council may monitor and assess compliance with the Medical Council’s Professional Competence Scheme.

Following the publication on 17 July 2013 of the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Bill 2013 long awaited reform of the law relating to mental capacity and assisted decision making inched closer to reality.

The Medical Council’s Annual Report published at the end of May 2013 showed complaints against doctors in 2012 were up 12% to a record 423 complaints. The main areas of complaint included communication, diagnosis, clinical investigations, follow up care and surgical procedures.

In a decision reached in November 2012 and recently reported in the Irish Times, Taxing Master Mr. Declan O’Neill significantly reduced the costs being sought by a Plaintiff’s solicitor.