Dental hygienists have voted to accept a recent Labour Court recommendation, which will see the creation of 24 senior posts to be filled from within the existing complement of dental hygienists.

The case was originally referred to the Labour Court in 2016 on the grounds that the staff were in the only HSE health profession without an appropriate grading structure. Fórsa official Maura Cahalan said the union argued that the profession should be no different to other grades, and that the agreed structure needed to be put in place.

The new posts will be divided up between eight regional community healthcare organisations (CHOs). Significantly, the successful candidates for these posts will remain in their positions but will be upgraded to the role of senior dental hygienist.

Maura described the deal as a significant breakthrough for the profession.

“Fórsa worked tirelessly to bring this longstanding issue to a conclusion. One of the union’s critical achievements was to ensure management created an accrual in last year’s accounts to cover the cost of the implementation of this agreement,” she said.

Maura added that the funding would have been lost at the end of 2020 if the agreement not been accepted.

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