David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister might send me a detailed note. Obviously, that funding needs to be made permanent and part of the baseline because there is no point putting in an injection of short-term funding. While that would, of course, help in the short term and while we need to get treatment for as many children with scoliosis or spina bifida as possible, we cannot simply provide funding for one year and then find ourselves back at square one next year or in two or three years' time. The money needs to be baselined.

When are we going to see the issue of the dental treatment service scheme resolved? When will talks conclude? I received a response to a parliamentary question. As the Minister will know, I have been tracking this issue for some time. Officially, more than one third of dentists have now left the scheme. There are many more who are registered with the scheme but who are simply not operating it. The Irish Dental Association says there may be as few as 600 dentists now operating the scheme. Medical card patients, including both children and adults, are not getting services because of the crisis in the system. The official figures say there are 1,100 dentists on the scheme. When are we going to see a new arrangement and a new contract put in place?