Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

I dare to suggest it amounts to political pressure. A Government decision was made to offer free medical care to under six-year-olds and once the decision was made, it had to be followed up. Suddenly, lo and behold, the Government realised that without the implicit support of the representative body for doctors, there would be no prospect of doctors signing up to it. That issue was well-known long before 2014. We were told that whatever was resolved for doctors would apply to dentists but in the seven years since then we have had one lame excuse after another as to why nothing could be done.

To answer the Deputy’s question, it is purely down to the fact that there was a need felt by the Government of the day to do something about the issue and it found a way. We never accepted there was an issue in the first place but that was the view prevailing within the Administration at the time. Lo and behold, it found a way to resolve it without undue difficulty in 2014 but for some reason the Government does not seem to be able to use the same approach with dentists. We can only conclude it is because it does not feel the pressure to do so.