Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He is still the sponsoring Minister. I do want to address the whole idea of the lay majority. I was privileged to be nominated as one of the few lay members of the Dental Council in 2010 by the then Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan. That board involves fees of zero, by the way, before anybody starts to worry about how much I was getting paid. It was on Merrion Square so I never even claimed expenses for travelling from my house to there. There were 19 members on that board, of whom 14 were dentists or people involved in dental education, auxiliary training workers and so forth on the various committees. It was essential for something as technical and complex as the Dental Council, which is the regulator and registrar of dentists and has a fitness to practice committee, an education committee, an auxiliary workers committee and so on, that people know quite a lot about the field. If one was advertising for an editor of a newspaper, would one have an interview board made up of people who have nothing to do with newspapers? It is technical, complicated, legal stuff. I am not a solicitor, barrister or judge. If I was a judge I would not be here.