Dental Council gone AWOL!

Hillmanhunter1 wrote: »

Something very odd is going on at the Dental Council.

Their website has no information about the members, there is a statement as follows:
"The new Council took office on 13 November 2015. Details of membership to follow."

I asked the Registrar for details of the members of the Council and he demurred. I made an FoI request and the response was that the Council has decided that the identity of the members of the Dental Council is personal information as far as the FoI Act is concerned, and therefore they are not willing to disclose who they are.

This is extraordinary to me. The members of a public body have decided that the public has no right to know who they are!

It gets worse.

The Dental Council (like all similar public bodies) is required to publish an Annual Report. The last Annual Report that they published was for 2012. No report has been produced for 2013, 2014 and 2015. This is a breach of the requirements of the Dentists Act, 1985. What on earth is the Department of Health doing about this - did they even notice?

Then there's the notice that's posted on the home page of their website Dental Council of Ireland - About Us

"The Council has become aware of a number of false and malicious allegations that have been posted on a number of online fora, purporting to be from patients, concerning treatment allegedly provided by some members of the Dental Council. These allegations, and the contents of the postings, are totally untrue.

The European Dental organisations to which they refer do not exist, nor have any of the people referred to ever been treated by the dentists in question. None of the dentists referred to in the postings have been the subject of disciplinary action by the Dental Council.

The postings are part of an orchestrated campaign by a disgruntled individual (who has never been a patient of any of the dentists in question). We are seeking to have this material removed. Please feel free to contact the Council offices if you are a patient and are concerned about any information you may have accessed on-line."

What is this all about?

As I say, something very odd is going on at the Dental Council!