Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not repeat the issues raised but I want to echo the concerns raised by the previous speakers. I thank the witnesses for their presentation and the way they have laid it out in examining the challenges, but also for coming up with possible solutions. In the context of the position we are in currently, they have put forward realistic proposals.

I want to focus on a number of areas. First, oral cancer is not spoken about to a major extent and because it is not usually visible to most of us, it is only when someone attends a dentist that it is identified. Have the witnesses seen an increase in the incidence of oral cancer or an increase in the number of people being diagnosed later? What is the impact of that on their treatment and outcomes?

Regarding the schools programme and school screening, we have particular problems in the west. In Galway the issue has been long-fingered, and the position is not much better in Roscommon.

That has a considerable impact on the treatment of children, as indicated, and on their ability to get onto the waiting list for orthodontic treatment. Through no fault of the delegation, the submission contains the orthodontic waiting list figures for everywhere in the country except the western region, where circumstances are appalling and where children are waiting for two years and three months on average to see an orthodontist. Some 2,000 children are affected. Some 40% of posts in the western region are vacant, which is compounding the problem. As Deputy Ó Caoláin pointed out, this has a huge impact in terms of the victimisation of children in school. It leads to isolation and bullying. We know the impact of the latter on children.

It is really frustrating in my part of the country that a child on one side of the road must wait for two years and three months, if he is lucky, to be called for orthodontic treatment while a child on the other side of the road can obtain treatment in less than half that time because he so happens to live in the midlands region. The two children may sit beside each other in school and live across the road from each other, yet they are treated completely differently. I understood the HSE was established to deal with these anomalies but it seems to have compounded the problem. What are the delegates' suggestions for tackling the crisis in regard to orthodontic treatment and the impact it has on children's development into adults?