Council Chair and Deputy Chair elections
We are pleased to announce that at its February 2025 meeting, Council elected John Bridgman as Chair and Rosemary Fitzpatrick as Deputy Chair. Congratulations to both on their appointments. We look forward to their continued contributions to the Council.
John Bridgman takes over the leadership role from Andrew Cautley, who served as Chair for the past three years. During his term, Andrew guided the Council through the transition back to normalcy as the COVID-19 lockdowns ended. One of his key priorities during his term was strengthening the connection with the profession at a grass-roots level to better understand the role of Council and clarify what we could and could not do as a regulator. Andrew further strengthened the working relationships between Council and the professional organisations through participating in roadshows, professional conferences and transparently engaging with associations.
Andrew led the Council through its first Ministry of Health regulatory review, and the follow-on work required to fulfil the review recommendations. Other focus areas included finalising the Ireland reciprocity for the dentistry programmes, management of non-compliance on the newly introduced recertification programme, benchmarking and learnings from other international regulators, and the Council’s journey of oral health regulation.
Championing governance capability and accountability, Andrew supported initiatives to strengthen Council decision making, access to adequate resourcing and tools to improve efficiency, and streamline policies and processes to remove unnecessary barriers or delays. Critical reflection continues for ongoing improvement as the organisation remains focused on refining its practices for efficiency and effectiveness gains.
On behalf of Council and the Secretariat, we extend our gratitude to Andrew for his outstanding service and leadership as Chair over the last three years. Andrew remains an appointed member on Council.