Trinity College Dublin

That decision, in which Prof Daly was selected ahead of two female obstetricians of professorial rank, has been criticised after it emerged the interview panel ...

Prof Daly’s selection brought public expressions of disappointment on social media from the two unsuccessful female candidates. Prof Murphy has also questioned whether the participation of outgoing master Prof Fergal Malone in the interview panel amounted to a conflict of interest given that he and Prof Daly work in a private practice in the Evie Clinic in the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford, south Dublin. “The board of the Rotunda Hospital has nine women members, two of whom are councillors, one the Lord Mayor Dublin,” Prof Murphy told The Irish Times. Professor Deirdre Murphy joined a number of senior medics who have criticised the process around the appointment of the new master of the maternity hospital after it emerged that a panel of nine men and four women, including a non-voting HR manager, picked the new chief. Trinity College Dublin’s head of obstetrics had questioned why a gender-balanced interview panel could not have been set up to pick the next master of the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. That decision, in which Prof Daly was selected ahead of two female obstetricians of professorial rank, has been criticised after it emerged the interview panel comprised nine men, three women and one female HR manager who was not involved in marking the candidates.