The Dental Council will be issuing the annual renewal notices to dentists on 12 November for the 2026 registration period increasing the annual retention fee for 2026. The Dental Council has agreed to increase the retention fees for dentists and specialists to €450 (up from €380 in 2025) for dentists and €830 (up from €760 in 2025) for dental specialists. There are three main reasons for the increase:
- First, it has been planned to increase the fee for 2025 to €400 in anticipation that the Regulated Professions (Health and Social Care)(Amendment) Act, 2020 would be commenced in 2024. As this was delayed, the Dental Council only sought permission for a fee of €380. The Act is now commenced and so the Dental Council sought permission to apply the outstanding €20 increase. The main impact of commencement of this Act is to allow the Dental Council to consider sanctions attached to registrants in other jurisdictions.
- Second, the costs of fitness to practise have been higher than budgeted over the last three years mainly due to the number of suspension applications it has had to bring to the High Court. As a result, the council will have run deficits – albeit relatively small – for three consecutive three years. Part of the increase is to rebuild the council’s reserves for the purposes of good governance.
- Third, to cover normal inflationary increases.
The Dental Council has also agreed to increase most of the other fees the Dental Council charges, such as the fee to apply to register with the Dental Council and the fees for the auxiliary professions and these will be rolled out in due course. It is planned that in 2027 only a ‘cost of living’ level increase will be required to cover our present activities in 2027.
