Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I thank Professor Stassen, in particular, for coming in, since he operated on my daughter. This is the first time I have seen him since the very successful operation in St. James's Hospital, for which I thank him. I read the submissions, which are quite scary. As Deputy Donnelly said, it is rare that we would get submissions in which the language is so stark. The issue is quite serious. I am concerned about the exclusion of the relevant health professionals and representative bodies from the consultation process. Does either group have a view on why they were excluded and why it would be in the interests of the Department? I am sure the Department has a good reason for not being here but I am disappointed about it, because that would round out our discussions. I fully appreciate that officials have sent their apologies but it would have been better if we had been able to speak to them at the same time or as part of a separate session on the same day. Do the witnesses have a good working relationship with the Department? Mr. Hourihan and I would have previously interacted monthly, although it felt like it was daily, with the HSE in formal meetings where issues of concern were raised. Is there a similar set-up in dentistry? Is there anything like that at all? The witnesses might offer a view as to why they feel they were excluded.