Professor Chris Lynch:

I thank Dr. Marley. I thank the joint committee for meeting us and members for their interesting questions. It is quite engaging sitting on this side of the table. One can sense how members feel about the subject from the level of the questions they are asking us, for which I very much thank them.

I agree with much of what Mr. Hourihan and Dr. Marley said. We are facing a people and power crisis in successional planning within the leadership and services in the dentistry profession in Ireland. It relates to a number of issues surrounding the specialist training aspect, including the lack of a framework for training individuals who wish to train, the lack of funded opportunities and the failure to recognise the relevant specialist list, which is a big problem. We operate under the Dentists Act 1985. It was published and passed when I was in fourth class in primary school. There are two recognised dental specialties in Ireland. I have recently returned to Cork having worked for 11 years as a senior consultant in the United Kingdom where there are 13 dental specialties. I was based in the main dental hospital in Cardiff in Wales. We had a network of individuals around us such that the management of very complex and needy patients was quite straightforward because of the range of services to which there was access.

My specialty is restorative dentistry. It is not recognised as a specialty in Ireland, but it is in the United Kingdom. I was involved in the management of patients with, for example, head and neck cancer. They would have had areas of their mouth removed owing to the nature of their disease. My job was to put things back and rehabilitate patients, either with implants or plates. I am also involved in treating patients who have a condition called hypodontia. They were born with certain teeth absent.

The network in the United Kingdom was much more established. I work with very gifted people in Ireland and there is a similar service in Cork, but, again, if the network was established around us, it would make life a lot easier for us as professionals in delivering an enhanced service for patients. We need to look in a very serious way at the framework for training consultants and specialists and also at the recognition of dental specialties.