Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Hourihan spoke about future planning in regard to the dental service. He might set out how he understands the numbers of those registered with the Dental Council, first, the total number who are registered as qualified dentists, second, the number working full-time and part-time and, third, the number who want to retire in the next five years. In addition, even if we open up the dental schools in the morning, it is still going to be five years before we have people coming out. It is not an area where we can wave a magic wand and sort it out. Taking the existing population, and given the population in five years will be different again, what is Mr. Hourihan's understanding of the number of graduates we should be producing here every year?