This Bill bears considerable resemblance to the Medical Bill. The agreement which gave rise to it follows broadly the lines of the agreement arrived at with regard to medical registration. There are many points of resemblance, but there are some points of difference, to which attention should be drawn. For instance, the positions of the medical and dental professions differ in this respect—that an unregistered person who practises dentistry or dental surgery commits an offence under the Dentists Act, 1921. There is no similar provision in regard to unregistered medical practitioners. The only disability a practitioner of that kind labours under is that he cannot recover fees. A person practising medicine who is not registered as a medical practitioner is not given the protection of the courts in recovering fees. That is provided by Section 32 of the Medical Act, 1858. Registered dentists, unlike registered medical practitioners, pay an annual fee for the retention of their names on the register, in return for the prohibition of the practice of dentistry by unregistered persons. Medical practitioners pay one fee on registration, and that ends the matter. The Dentists Act passed in 1921, which for the first time prohibited the practice of dentistry by unregistered persons, recognised that those unregistered persons who, without any degrees or diplomas, had practised dentistry for a considerable time prior to the passing of the Act, had acquired a vested interest, and provision was made for protection of that interest by Section 3 of the Act of 1921, which enabled those persons to be registered within a limited time, in spite of their lack of what has now come to be considered proper qualifications. The persons who took advantage of that section of the Act of 1921 locally referred to as the "1921 men," are quite a numerous body in the Saorstát. They number almost as many as the dentists whose qualification depends on diplomas and degrees. There are two representative bodies. The "1921 men" are represented by a body called the "Incorporated Dental Society." The other dentists holding degrees and diplomas are represented by a body called the "Irish Dental Association."
In the ordinary course of events the number, of course, of the 1921 men will tend to gradually diminish and finally disappear, until you have a situation in which there will be no person registered other than by virtue of degrees and diplomas. At the moment you have a large body, but with the passage of time that body will be a diminished quantity in proportion to the whole and will finally disappear. The representation of the new Board is that there shall be one representative of the 1921 men and four representatives of the qualified dentists—the dentists who hold professional degrees and diplomas. That is a rather rough and ready system adopted from the corresponding Act in Great Britain. Of course, as the number of 1921 men declined, and their proportion to the whole diminished, it is not unlikely that a change will have to be made in the composition of the Council. However, that is for the future. The relations existing between the General Medical Council and the dentists' profession in Great Britain are important, because the arrangements made here under our Bill are rather closely corresponding. Under the Dentists Act of 1878, which set up a register of dentists, the control of the register and of dental education was vested in the Medical Council, and that situation continued until the legislation of 1921. By the Act of 1921 a special Dental Board was established, and that Board was to deal with registration and with matters of the internal discipline of the profession, but administration of these matters was still, to a large extent, theoretically, subject to the Medical Council. Registration and professional control, as I say, were dealt with largely by the Dentists' Board, but dental education still remains under the control of the General Medical Council. It was provided that when the Medical Council exercised any of their functions under the Dentists Act that then two additional members, with special knowledge and experience of dental matters, were to be added to the Council. It is intended, under this agreement, and under the Bill which flows from the agreement, that the relations between the Dental Board here, in the Saorstát, and the Saorstát Medical Council shall correspond to the relations between the Dental Board in Great Britain and the General Medical Council. That arrangement is, I think, considered entirely satisfactory by the dentists' profession here, and it is the agreement envisaged by the agreement which we signed with the British Government and the General Medical Council.
