The council received 361 complaints last year, mostly relating to professional standards, treatment, poor communication and rudeness, or a failure to supply medical records.
There were 12 complaints for a failure to attend a patient and ten complaints were for alcohol or drug abuse, or irresponsible prescribing.
The council decided there was no case for holding a full inquiry in 83% of cases.
Council Chief Executive Caroline Spillane said the number of complaints is likely to increase in future, as people become more aware of the council's activities, particularly with inquiries now held in public.
According to its annual report, on average one in every 49 doctors on the register was the subject of a complaint last year, however Irish people are less likely to complain about a doctor than people in Britain.
A higher proportion of complaints are made against GPs, obstetricians and gynaecologists, psychiatrists and surgeons.
It now takes around an average of 16 weeks between the receipt of a complaint and a decision from the preliminary proceedings committee on whether a full inquiry is warranted.
The council also monitored the health of 21 doctors last year, who were referred to its Health Sub Committee, for alcohol or drug addiction, mental or physical illness or infectious diseases.
Over 18,700 doctors are registered with the Medical Council to practise medicine in Ireland, with 23 having conditions attached to their continued practise.
Campaign group Patient Focus says it has concerns about openness in relation to the workings of the Medical Council's preliminary proceedings committee.
The group says it receives between 400 and 500 complaints a year and most relate to complaints about the competence or attitude of doctors.
It reports problems in accessing records in relation to doctors working in private facilities.
The organisation has welcomed the publication of today's statistics and said that the council is now engaging with the public in a way that was unheard of ten years ago.
McKenna case to reopen as GP Admits using unlicensed mind altering drugs
Solicitors acting for Vincent McKenna are to lodge appeal papers with the Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin following revelations that the GP at the centre of the Mc Kenna case has admitted having a child with convicted IRA serial killer Michael Pete Ryan (now deceased) and administering unlicensed-mind-altering drugs to the child at the centre of the allegations.
Newly discovered documents show that Dr Marian Smyth (sister-in-law to convicted criminal Owen/Eoin Smyth) Monaghan Town, administered unlicensed-mind-altering drugs to the 17 year old girl at the centre of the allegations. The drug known as seroxat is banned in all other European countries as it is known to cause personality disorders, false memory syndrome and suicidal tendencies.
The newly discovered documents allow Mc Kenna to have his case brought back before the Courts under section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act.
SEROXAT (PAROXETINE) CONTRAINDICATED FOR CHILDREN
The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) confirmed that the findings of recent Seroxat clinical studies undertaken by the manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) found that it was not effective in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder and showed an increased rate of self-harm and potentially suicidal behaviour in children and adolescents treated in the studies. As a result of this new information the IMB considers that Seroxat should not be used to treat children and teenagers under the age of 18 years. The IMB has ensured healthcare professionals have been advised of this latest information and have amended the Patient Information Leaflet (PIL) and product licence to contraindicate use of Seroxat in patients under 18 years of age with major depressive disorder.
The IMB re-emphasises to healthcare professionals that Seroxat is not and has not been licensed for use in children or adolescents in Ireland. However, doctors have the authority to prescribe any product for a patient under their care if it is deemed appropriate. The IMB wants to stress the importance for doctors, patients and parents to be aware of this new advice and for patients under 18 years who may be taking Seroxat to consult their doctor for advice. It is essential that patients taking Seroxat do not suddenly discontinue use of their treatment, because of the risk of withdrawal effects. Any changes must take place under medical supervision.
Dr Marian Smyth
IRA activists such as Michael Pete Ryan, who was having an affair with the wife of Owen Smyth’s brother (Dr Brian Smyth) Dr Marian Smyth, appeared unable to realise that his open relationship with Dr Smyth was frowned upon by Owen who felt his family was being disgraced, Smyth however never openly confronted Ryan about his affair with Dr Marian Smyth. Pete Ryan’s motor bike would be openly parked outside Dr Smyth’s house each morning and this was a real bone of contention for Owen Smyth. Dr Marian Smyth would have a child (Michael) to Pete Ryan and Pete Ryan would be shot dead by the SAS in 1991. It is believed that someone talked out of shop and Laurence Mc Nally’s car was followed to the border as his friend dropped him off to travel with Ryan and Tony Doris to carry out an attack on a member of the security forces in Tyrone. There is no doubt that lose talk cost lives, however that lose talk had to be collected by someone and passed to their handlers in the security forces.
Owen Smyth was also aware that Pete Ryan was having a sexual relationship with another woman who was from Ballybay in County Monaghan at the same time that Pete was having a sexual relationship with Dr Marian Smyth, the Ballybay woman also had a child to Pete Ryan, Owen Smyth would have done anything to get Pete Ryan out of the way.
Smyth continued to get by on lies and half-truths and most serious republicans simply ignored his actions. In 1998 Smyth turned up a press conference in New York that was being hosted by Bernadette Mc Kevitt Sands and her 32 County Sovereignty Committee. Bernadette was critical of the peace process and as she spoke the New York Observer recorded the following:
A burly Sinn Fein councillor from Monaghan Town called Owen Smyth, stood up in the audience and said: “I have been imprisoned and there have been four attempts on my life and I continue to support the Adams leadership”.
Of course none of the audience gathered there would have known that the only reason Smyth done time was because he was a tout, and there has never been a single attempt on his life, except those that he has invented or manufactured himself in order to garner publicity for himself. This can be confirmed with Kevin Mc Kenna, now retired to a pub in Smithboro, County Monaghan, or any other serious IRA player in Monaghan.
Smyth unable to garner his thirst for publicity through Sinn Fein created a proxy journalist through whom Smyth could exude his petty vindictiveness against those whom he despised because of their personal abilities and what he would have regarded as their success and status. Patrick ‘the dwarf’ Tierney was known in Monaghan Town as a drunk and had been given the menial task of selling An Phoblacht around a small housing estate in Monaghan Town (Belgium Park). However, Owen Smyth who regularly filled Tierney’s glass free of charge asked Tierney if he would be interested in making some money. Smyth told Tierney that he wanted someone to issue press releases as if they were coming from an independent source rather than from Smyth himself. Smyth told Tierney that he could get two ‘journalists’ to propose and second him in order that he might obtain a National Union of Journalist (NUJ) card, and this would allow him to get paid as a freelance journalist. Tierney short of money and intellect agreed and was sworn to secrecy.
Smyth then approached two ‘journalists’ in Monaghan and both being fond of the drink were easy to convince that proposing and seconding Tierney would be helpful to Sinn Fein. Tierney then began to issue Press releases that had been written by Owen Smyth, these press releases were normally issued from the Round House Bar and usually presented Smyth as a man of stature and reliability. Smyth also issued press releases through Tierney to discredit Sinn Fein TD, CO’C, whom Smyth despised because of his status within the republican movement. It was Smyth who informed the media that CO’C was in difficulty with the Department of Social Welfare, having claimed money that he was not entitled to claim.
Tierney was a willing partner in this relationship and could be regularly seen falling drunk out of the Round House bar that was owned and run by Smyth. The Smyth Tierney relationship would reach fever pitch when former IRA member turned anti-terrorist campaigner, Vincent Mc Kenna, faced charges of sexual assault. Smyth despised Mc Kenna as much as he despised CO’C, Mc Kenna had left behind his association with the republican movement in Monaghan and had went on to be educated as a mature student at Queens University in Belfast. Mc Kenna had become a fierce critic of the criminality and sectarianism of Sinn Fein/IRA and was regularly featured on CNN, CBS and other media around the world. It would be Owen Smyth’s sister-in-law, Dr Marian Smyth who would be involved in the claims of sexual assault against Mc Kenna. Mc Kenna’s ex-wife worked as a cleaner for Dr Marian Smyth and Fiona’s fondness of the drink made her an easy target for manipulation. Both Dr Marian Smyth and Owen Smyth meet on many occasions in order to generate further publicity against Mc Kenna. Smyth would go on to claim in the Irish Voice and British Independent that Mc Kenna had never been in the republican movement and was never trusted, this of course was Smyth’s way of trying to conceal the fact that he (Smyth) made dozens of statements against Monaghan Republicans when he was arrested by the RUC.
Before Mc Kenna’s release from prison in My 2005, Owen Smyth issued a press statement through Tierney, the press release invented by Smyth and Tierney stated that a group called ‘Families Against Paedophiles’ in Monaghan were going to kill Mc Kenna upon his release. Tierney was paid thousands of Euro by media outlets all over the country for a story that he and Smyth had invented. Following many years of internal dispute about Smyth’s bizarre behaviour, Smyth was finally gone from the republican movement. However, even Smyth’s former colleagues on Monaghan Urban Council became tired of him. Smyth had asked Sinn Fein members to table a motion:
(a) That Monaghan Town Council supports the call by former Monaghan Town Councillor, Owen Smyth, for an independent inquiry into the circumstances concerning his arrest, detention, charging and the Garda handling of the surrounding incidents in 1991.
The motion was rejected. Smyth even in the face of overwhelming evidence continued to seek out publicity for his Walter Mitty type existence. Indeed Smyth has even placed a short video on You Tube where he claims that he taught Jim Lynagh everything he knew, the same Jim Lynagh that said of Smyth:
“I would not trust him to deliver a pizza”.
By 2008 Smyth was finished, republicans no longer drank in his pub and he was forced to close up shop and sell his pub which is presently being turned into offices. In July 2010 Owen Smyth, the man who regularly claimed to his customers and anyone who would listen to him, that he was unable to go into the north as the Brits were after him, openly attended a funeral in County Tyrone and was ignored by many life-long republicans who attended the same funeral.
