Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

No, the Minister could do that without the need to update the legislation. I will ask Dr. Croke to contribute in this regard. There are so many ways in which patient care is not being safeguarded because of the lack of legislation. These range from little things such as there being no mandatory requirement on dentists to continue engaging in education, and show evidence of it, to more significant safeguards where dentists have problems and intervention is needed by the Dental Council. It simply reflects the fact that legislation has not been updated for many years.