Mr. David O'Flynn:

In the context of the numbers, the additional space that is being delivered through the education system will be welcome. It is an admirable long-term goal for Ireland to train the dentists it needs, but it is long term. We are looking at a ten to 15 year period for tor the additional measures to have any real impact on the number of dentists in the service. A positive sign is that the demand for registration is very strong. We registered more dentists last year than at any other time previously. We registered approximately 350 dentists last year. The year before that was our previous registration high, at just short of 300. As the vast majority of the dentists registering are European dentists, they can move here under the freedom of movement provisions.

There is a question around the capacity issue. We talked earlier about the international protection dentists. One of the issues they have reported to us is that they are finding it hard to find full-time jobs. I do not know how long the dentists that are coming in from the European Union are staying or whether they are having difficulties here. I am not sure that matching the demand for dentists in a particular location to dentists coming in is feasible. That may need to be examined. In the context of trying to do something in the short term, there is a question in that area that needs to be considered and addressed. The increase in places in schools is admirable, and Ireland probably does need to train more dentists, but it is a long-term measure. Its impact will be felt in the mid-2030s; it will not be felt now. There is a demand to practise dentistry in Ireland, however, and the registration demand is strong. Work needs to be done to link that to the locations where there is demand for dentists. That is apparent based on what we are seeing from the register. We hope that somebody will look at it. State intervention will probably be required in order to match the demand for registration with the demand for dentists in particular localities.