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

I apologise for being late - I was showing solidarity with workers on the picket line this morning and got caught in traffic - but I have had the opportunity to read over the submissions.

I am unclear about the matter of the Irish Dental Association. Its representatives appeared before the committee and were very clear. Their considered view was that the association was not consulted, that there was no meaningful consultation, and they do not see their views or position reflected in any of the documentation. I struggle to understand how we can have two people in for two different sessions who can have such completely divergent views of the same process. Dr. Dougall calls what happened detailed consultation, while the Irish Dental Association is certainly not of that view. There appears to have been some meetings but the Irish Dental Association says that it cannot see its views in the policy. It is the body which represents the profession. Maybe we will never get to the bottom of it but it is worth noting that it was very strong in its view that there had not been meaningful engagement. We could detail all the meetings - we could have 100 meetings here and maybe it could be that I did not listen or the witnesses did not speak. It is a difficulty and I hope that the partnership can be rebuilt. The two views contradict and I do not know if we can square the circle. In the absence of a time machine it cannot be fixed but it is important that the relationship is re-established. I am not necessarily asking the witnesses to accept that the relationship has broken down or put words in their mouths but it is difficult for us as we have heard two divergent views of the same process. I find it curious that two groups of professionals could be involved in a dialogue the end result of which is that one group is firm that it was not consulted and the other is firm that it was.

Something that was not in the submission, or if it was I missed it, was the audit of orthodontic services carried out in 2015. This was reported in the press. There have been calls for this to be published. I think I read that the position of the HSE and Department of Health was that this was just a scoping exercise and there is no need to publish it but can Mr. Healy explain why it was not published?