Professor Brian O'Connell:

I sympathise very much with the HSE because, when it had the system working, it worked very well. It is correct that it has dedicated people. All the changes need to be implemented together. Essentially, specialty training has fallen apart. Those who wish to train to be an orthodontist, here or abroad, are paying for their own education. In Dublin or Cork, it is €25,000 per year for three years to train as an orthodontist. In such circumstances, it is impossible to attract those concerned back into the public service, especially when salaries have been cut. It is simply not an option. We are training the staff but they are paying for the training themselves, so there is no incentive for them to go into the public service. Here is where we need some joined-up thinking.

Specifically at the request of the public service, we set up a training programme for orthodontic therapists in Trinity but the health service does not employ orthodontic therapists. We have private petitioners lining up to send their staff in to be trained as orthodontic therapists to work in private practice but they are not working in the public service. The public service is not employing them. We need the joined-up thinking and the plans need to be implemented as one or they will not work together.