Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

We are separate organisations. We are the representative body and they are the regulatory body. We had a meeting with them as recently as five or six weeks ago. They are an organisation which has certain powers from legislation. We converse regularly with them. We have an appropriate relationship between a representative and a regulatory body. I speak regularly to my counterpart in the council. The lines of communication are fairly open and constant. We would like to see a stronger Dental Council given new powers. We are not protectionist or defensive about the regulation of dentistry. We believe more regulation is important, primarily to protect patients. We fully support that. I would like to think we have a good relationship with the Dental Council. We have differences of opinion and disagreements from time to time but that is natural.