• TCD dental student intake of 2023/24 consisted of 48 total students of which 16 (36%) were non-EEA students
• UCC dental student intake of 2023/24 consisted of 53 total students of which 25 (47%) were non-EEA students
• 63% of Irish dentists say they struggle to recruit associate dentists [Irish Dental Association survey, 2024]
• The HSE public dental service has 23% less dentists employed than in 2009

Dr Rory Boyd, President of the Irish Dental Association said, “The current model of producing dental graduates is unsustainable and Irish patients are suffering the consequences of the shortage of dentists. We need to see significant investment in our dental schools from government to increase the number of Irish and EEA dental graduates to meet patient demand.”

The Irish Dental Association is calling on the government to properly fund our dental schools and to limit the number of non-EEA students who make up a large proportion of dental students in the two Irish dental schools (University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin). A cap on foreign students has been proposed in Australia where Australian students are facing stiff competition from foreign students for places in higher education. The Association has called for a cap of non-EEA students of 20% next year and decreasing to 10% over the next three years.

Non-EEA students pay over €45,000 per annum to train in either UCC or TCD which is used to cross-subsidise Irish dental students due to the years of under-resourcing of our Irish dental schools. The department of higher education relies on this funding model to reduce its’ overall expenditure in Irish dental schools and more broadly across the university system.

Approximately half of the total dental student intake is made up of students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This means that there is only a limited number of dental students coming from Ireland or EEA countries. These non-EEA graduates usually return to their country of origin to practice dentistry rather than practising in Ireland. The high proportion of non-EEA students not only limits the opportunities for Irish and EEA students but also impacts workforce planning, as the vast majority of international students do not remain in Ireland post-graduation.

The Irish Dental Association has consistently highlighted the shortage of dentists in Ireland across both the Public Dental Service (PDS) and in private practice. The PDS has 74 less dentists today than it did in 2009, a 23% decline. Meanwhile, all other HSE positions have seen staff increases of between 20-52% (nurses, NCHDs, consultants and admin staff) [per HSE figures].

Furthermore, a survey of Irish Dental Association members this year stated that 63% of dentists struggled to recruit a dentist within the past 12 months. Dental practices cannot cope with the number of patients seeking treatment which is leading to long waiting lists and a decline of the patient access.

Irish Dental Schools

The IDA is deeply concerned about the chronic underfunding of Ireland’s dental schools, which has exacerbated the shortage of dental graduates who go on to practice in Ireland. Despite the Higher Education Authority (HEA) announcement in 2023 regarding additional undergraduate dental places, no funding has been forthcoming to implement these plans. Compounding this issue, funding has been withdrawn from the planned new dental school at UCC, a project that has now been shelved despite the urgent need for a €55 million capital investment to deliver a new dental hospital at UCC.

To adequately increase the number of dental graduates who will practice in Ireland, an additional €20 million in funding is needed for the dental schools at UCC and TCD. Decades of underinvestment have led to the current staffing and resourcing crisis faced by dentists and dental patients across the country.

Commenting, Dr Rory Boyd, President of the Irish Dental Association, said:

“The current model of producing dental graduates is unsustainable and Irish patients are suffering the consequences of the shortage of dentists. We need to see significant investment from government in our dental schools to increase the number of Irish and EEA dental graduates to meet patient demand.

“Irish students who achieve the incredible feat of 625 points in their leaving certificate are having to face a lottery for acceptance into the dentistry courses in TCD and may well face the same in UCC before long. Not only is it extremely disappointing for the Irish students who achieve maximum points and cannot select their first choice of dentistry, it is an unacceptable loss of potential dentists that are badly needed here in Ireland.

“The higher education funding model for dentistry is broken fundamentally, and the government has not taken the appropriate measures to ensure our dental schools are adequately funded and sufficient dental graduates that will practice in Ireland are trained and retained. We need to see a seismic change in the funding of our dental schools and a cap of 20% next year, decreasing to 10% over the next three years, to re-emphasise the retention of Irish and EEA graduates into the Irish dental workforce.”