Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Is it agreed that we send the proposed solutions as part of the document to the Department and that we write to it about the vacant position? We will put this on the work programme after Easter in the context of getting a response from the Department to today's presentation.

I thank the witnesses and Ms Elaine Hughes, the assistant chief executive, who is in the Visitors' Gallery, for coming in. I also thank them for their ongoing communication and for raising the issues with us. It has been a valuable learning exercise. We appreciate the work they do in their practices around the country. Some members raised questions about hours of operation. I know quite a number of dentists in my area in Cork and they are very much patient-focused. They have emergency numbers on their answering machines and I had to use one last weekend. To be fair, the dentist was available if I needed him. Dentists place their patients at the heart of what they do. Again, I thank the witnesses for coming in.

I remind Deputy Healy that the select committee will meet at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 to deal with the Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2012. We will discuss organ donation at our next meeting. I wish everyone a happy Easter and ask members not to cause too much harm to their teeth by indulging in too many chocolate Easter eggs.