Dr. Eamon Croke:

He needs to recognise it. At the moment, two specialties are recognised in Ireland, which are oral surgery and orthodontics. This goes back to a 1980 EEC directive, as it was at the time. We have never moved on. Specialties are a result of increasing knowledge. We cannot all be experts but one can get experts in there. The Minister needs to recognise the specialties. There are between ten and 13 of them. In 2014, the Dental Council presented a case to the then Minister for this. That was never responded to. Within the profession and the Dental Council, the regulatory body, there is much support for specialties to be recognised, but the specialties include root canal treatment, special care, paediatric care, oral medicine and public health. A huge part of planning for the future is the public health specialist. It is recognised in the WHO strategy and somewhat in Smile agus Sláinte. One of the reasons legislation needs to change, beyond the Cathaoirleach's question about specialties, is that it needs to support whatever we plan to provide in oral healthcare and to ensure its sustainability into the future. We have the groundwork done and are not coming back all the time.