Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Most of the points made are for the HSE. I acknowledge that Deputy Durkan has consistently raised correctly the issue of the drug costs and that we should utilise our membership of the European Union in this regard. I could not agree more with him. I have attached a significant degree of importance to this since coming to office. In fact at the last meeting of European health Ministers in Luxembourg two or three weeks ago, I took the opportunity to raise the matter. We are beginning to see finally the building blocks of people working together, because none of us, regardless of whether one is a large or small country can afford to do it on our own any more. I am confident that we will see further progress. The officials from my Department will be at meetings with officials from a number of other countries, exploring concrete steps we can take in that regard.

I agree with the Deputy's viewpoint on orthodontics. We all see the impact of this service though our constituency work. It is an important and sensitive issue in the life of a young child or adolescent. We have a commitment in the programme for a partnership Government to provide timely access to orthodontic care. Already the HSE has undertaken a procurement of orthodontic services with a number of private service providers. This commenced towards the end of last year and we now have treated an additional 11,080 patients who were on the waiting list for the longest time. The HSE is looking at procurement locally, including service level agreements, SLAs, with dental schools. Orthodontics is an important area and one to which we attach priority.