Mr. David O'Flynn:

It would require increased resources in the Dental Council but the positive news is that in the way we would envisage it, it would be at no cost to the State. If we had the powers that we envisaged in the 2021 submission, we would need to create some kind of inspectorate unit and some kind of unit around practice regulation as well. We envisage that as its cost would be paid through the registration fee by the practices registering, it would be cost neutral to the State in that regard. In terms of its size, it would depend on the nature and the scope of what we got in the legislation but the general commitment from the Dental Council to the committee here today is that whatever needs to be done we will do and that we would put the appropriate resources in place as and when required.

The important thing from our perspective is to get the legislation and the pathway to this on the legislation books in order that we can actually do this. We have stated, however, that we will do it. From a resourcing point of view, it would probably entail the establishment of a couple of extra units within the Dental Council but it is something we anticipate we can do. We anticipate that it could be done at no additional cost to the State and we think we can do it very efficiently.