Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Nolan. I also convey our apologies to him for the late start of our discussion.

Mr. Nolan's CV is very impressive. He has considerable experience in business and business management, all of which is well noted and appreciated. Was there an open competition to become chairperson of the Dublin Dental University Hospital board or did the Minister seek him out to take up this role? What was the genesis for the approach to him in the first place? Perhaps it was an open contested position and that quite naturally, supported by his CV, he rose to the top.

If it was not, however, I wonder what it would have been that struck the Minister from Mr. Nolan's CV to look at this particular position in the dental hospital. As we know, it is very close by to where we are meeting this afternoon. I am not asking the question to be vexatious in any way at all. It is just to get an understanding of it because the natural fit does not jump off the page. All of the experience is noted and I have no doubt that that is perhaps the explanation - that Mr. Nolan will be applying all those resources in his new position. As a lay person, I think of the dental hospital as something in another field from business. I wonder what the linkage is, what the expected role would be, and what Mr. Nolan can tell us about the brief or remit he has in taking up this position.

From the perspective of this committee, we want to see the dental hospital hopefully covering all areas of the preparation for, and provision of, required dental practitioners across all the different skill bases that the particular profession encompasses. We want to see that develop and thrive. Coming out of a period of contraction, we do not want to see stale or sterile accounting practices being applied that might in any way inhibit its future development and success.

If Mr. Nolan can elaborate on any of those points, I ask him to do so. I wish him every success and good luck in his new position and I hope that we will have occasion to engage with him in the future.