Dental Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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David Cullinane (SF), Waterford

I welcome the wider work but the Dentists Act, an issue I have been over several times, does not provide the Dental Council of Ireland with sufficient powers to deal with unregistered dentists. In fact, it has been saying recently that it has not been able to take action against a total of 37 unregistered dentists over the past eight years, including one who was practising unregistered with a sexual assault conviction. I met a locum dentists recently who spoke to me about some horror stories of him being placed in unregistered dental practices. Some of the stuff would make the hairs stand on the back of your head. He was very concerned. There needs to be a review of that Act. I agree with Minister about the wider issues, a new oral health policy and stronger regulation and so on but if it is a case of right here, right now, the Dental Council of Ireland tells us it does not have sufficient powers. It may have some powers and there are other powers but these dentists are going undetected, are not properly sanctioned and I am hearing of these horror stories. I think this was reported in The Irish Times last week as well. They are serious issues that need urgent intervention.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05