The Dental Council are very pleased to announce the Dr Frank Burke has been elected as the President of Dental Council until November 2030. Dr Sarah Jane Grufferty has been elected as the Council’s Vice President.
Dr Burke has previously served as chair of the Dental Council’s Education and Training Committee and he was Senior Lecturer/Consultant in Restorative Dentistry the Dental School in University College Cork. He has also served the Deputy Head for Academic Affairs in the College of Medicine and Health in UCC, President of the British Society of Gerodontology, the British Association of Teachers of Conservative Dentistry and the Irish Division of the International Association for Dental Research. He has also acted as scientific advisor to the Irish Dental Association.
Dr Grufferty has served on the Dental Council since 2021 when she was a member of the Education & Training, Auxiliaries, Fitness to Practise (FTP), and the Assessment Sub-Committee (which supports registration pathways for dentists holding refugee status). Her clinical background spans both public and private practice in Ireland and Australia. She has worked in private practice in Cork, Dublin, and Sydney, and in the public service in the Midlands, Kildare/Wicklow and Dublin North City as a Senior Dentist.
Prof Lewis Winning, who was nominated to the Dental Council by Trinity College was elected as Chair of the Education and Training Committee.
Dr Enda Whelan, who is an elected dentist and a dentist in general practice in Portlaoise was elected as Chair of the Fitness to Practise Committee.
Dr PJ Byrne, who was nominated to the Dental Council by the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland was elected as Chair of the Auxiliary Dental Workers Committee.
