Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster has appealed to the Minister for Health to make a sincere commitment to getting public dental services back up and running.
Deputy Munster was speaking in the Dáil on a motion on dental services, where she raised the fact that around half of children aren’t receiving their routine dental checks, and there are no dental services available at the moment in Drogheda for medical card holders.
“Public dental services have almost collapsed under this government” Deputy Munster said. “Around half of primary school children are not having vital dental checks in second, fourth and sixth class. That’s in the region of 100,000 children last year and 100,000 the previous year.
“I had previously raised the fact that there were 12,393 children waiting up to three years for dental assessments and treatment in Louth and Meath, and since then nothing has changed.
“The government should be ashamed of themselves that they can’t ensure that these important, basic preventative checks are available to all children in the state.
“Medical cardholders are also being denied dental care under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS).
“For several years now there has been no dentist in Drogheda offering services under the scheme. Drogheda is the largest town in Ireland.
“I have constituents coming to me with serious medical conditions like oral cancer and diabetes who can’t access a dentist.
“There are 810 dentists on the scheme, and only 600 of this number are active – this is to cover a population of over a million people. In 2016 there were 1600 dentists on the scheme.
“The recruitment embargo means that the HSE can’t recruit staff, other than those at consultant level.
“It’s clear that the government has given up on this issue. I’ve been raising it for several years, and it’s now exactly three years since Minister Stephen Donnelly said his department would begin talks on a new scheme as a matter of urgency, but these talks have yet to begin.
“Dentists and patients have been getting nothing but lip service from Minister Donnelly.
“He must expedite the process and get the DTSS back up and running and he must ensure that more dentists and other dental healthcare workers can be recruited to ensure that every child in the state receives their entitlements to dental checks in primary school.”
