Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Again, we talked about the horrors but, particularly with regard to children, aside from adults, we have actually seen the horror caused by the neglect of oral health. The witnesses mentioned the fact there were 100,000 children last year. I do not understand why we have neglected this whole area of health, given the importance of oral health for the whole body, not just the mouth, and the impact it has. Other countries get it but, for some reason, we do not seem to have done that here. We prioritise other areas of health and, as I said, I welcome that a unit is being established. However, the fact that we are playing catch-up at this stage is very worrying.

Is there a solution to this if the money and resources were there? One of the resources that I want to ask about is the capacity within the training system itself. If we had the dentists within the system, would there be a possibility of clearing the backlog of 100,000 patients? Do we have the personnel? The witnesses made the suggestion of the night school, people going to the hospital and so on. Is there potentially a plan so that, for example, in the next five years, we could clear those waiting lists and fix the system? By the sound of it, the system is on its knees at present. Will it be possible within the next five or ten years to resolve all of these issues?