The current Miss Ireland has backed a contest for this year's crown for quitting the competition over "outdated" entry requirements.
Blue Scannell opted to pull out of this year's Miss Dublin final yesterday after she questioned rules that require entrants to have never been married of have given birth.
Chelsea Farrell, the current holder of the title, said she "completely agrees" with the student midwife's stance and called for a review of the rules.
"I think this is something that did really need to be brought to light," she told RTE's Liveline.
"It's something I've been asked about over and over again as you can imagine. I do agree that the rules are completely outdated and as a student midwife myself it does shock me that these rules are still in place."
Blue revealed on the show yesterday that she received a curt email response from organisers after she raised the issue, telling her if she did not agree with the rules she may be better off withdrawing from the competition.
Chelsea said the response did not surprise her and claimed that she has not been properly supported by Miss Ireland since she won the contest.
"The problem with this situation is not just the rules of eligibility," she said.
"For me, it's the response that Blue received. Again, this doesn't come as a shock to me because this response was so cold-hearted and insensitive and wasn't the approach that should have been taken.
"As a young woman, I think we should all be entitled to an opinion and fair play to Blue for voicing her opinion. She should have been entitled to have her say without being shut down and that's where I'm standing on that."
She added that she has since "cut ties" with the organisation but vowed to still call for change on behalf of future contestants.
"I am still the current Miss Ireland and I'm going to be the Miss Ireland who has a voice because it's not just the rules of eligibility that's the problem, it goes deeper than that but I will stand with all these girls and I will never, ever not support girls like Blue because they're all right and their opinions should all be heard."
Another former Miss Ireland, Holly Carpenter, said she was grateful for the career opportunities winning the contest opened up for her but she had similar experiences to Chelsea.
She said: "The support just wasn't there so it caused me a lot of anxiety to feel I was going off somewhere to represent my country...so I kind of felt really lost after it.
"And also turning up at gigs and things where there'd be loads of reporters there expecting quotes and doing interviews. You would think a 19-year-old would have people there helping her out."
When Holly raised concerns she was "being difficult".
She added: "That's a classic way of trying to shut a woman down is if someone is trying to express their feelings and they're told they're being difficult or they're being overly emotional. It's not great, especially for someone so young."
Dublin Live has contacted Miss Ireland for comment.
