DENTISTS HAVE CALLED on the government to limit the number of international students studying dentistry in Ireland, saying that a dentist shortage in Ireland is due to training spots being taken up by students to return to their home countries once qualified.

The Irish Dental Association has called on the government to limit students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to 20%.

Additionally, the association is calling for a funding boost of €20 million from the government to subsidise the financial cut that a limit on international students training in Ireland will create.

Students from outside the EEA pay over €45,000 per annum in fees to train in either University College Cork or Trinity College Dublin. These high fees are 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,” the association said today. 

The intake of dental students in TCD for the 2023/24 academic year consisted of 48 students, of which 16 (35%) were non-EEA students. In UCC, dental student intake for the same period was 53 students, of which 25 (47%) were non-EEA.

The Irish Dental Association said that generally, these dental students return to practice in their home country one they have completed their training, resulting in a lower number of qualified dentists in Ireland. 

A survey conducted by the association found that 63% of dentists struggle to recruit associate dentists, while the HSE public dental service has 23% less dentists employed than it had in 2009. 

President of the Irish Dental Association, Dr Rory Boyd, said that the current model of producing dental graduates is “unsustainable” and that Irish patients are ” suffering the consequences”.

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.”

He also added that Irish students to receive 625 points in their Leaving Cert are still having to face a lottery for acceptance into dental courses in TCD, and that the same may occur in UCC in the coming years.

“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-emphasis the retention of Irish and EEA graduates in to the Irish dental workforce,” he said.