Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask about budgets and delivery. I have addressed this previously with the HSE and with Mr. Watt. The figure that has been mentioned already in terms of the spend is €23 billion this year for the health service. I do not raise any argument in that regard, but the problem we have is that we must figure out what is happening between the delivery of the budget and the delivery of services. We know it is complex and there are myriad reasons the services do not transfer at the other end.

I will give one example. I do not expect the witnesses to have the detail on it. In response to a parliamentary question on 20 October, I asked about the school dental treatment scheme and the PRSI-based one for the dental treatment services scheme, DTSS. The witnesses will be familiar with them.

In 2021, there was a budget in community healthcare organisation, CHO, 8 of €4.86 million for the DTSS and €4.2 million for the school scheme but at the other end of it there was no service. I presume other counties are the same but there just is not a service in County Laois. I think I mentioned the schools scheme to Mr. Thompson before. I am very familiar with one student who has just turned 17. Some of her pals are almost 18. They have never ever seen a school dentist. The reason for this is that there are no private dentists participating in the scheme and there does not appear to be a HSE dentist either. When I ask the HSE about this, I get opaque answers. I do not want to go away today without asking about it again. We have the information officer from the HSE, Mr. Thompson, here. I do not expect him to know the detail of it but I expect an answer as to why this is the case. If we provide the budget and there is no service at the other end, what is happening in between? It is totally unacceptable. I know it is a difficult ship to turn around but if one looks across the health service, this can be replicated in other areas where there is a budget going in. We all want substantial funding for health but other European countries that are putting in lesser amounts have top-of-the-range dental schemes and health delivery. Their waiting times are far shorter than ours. None of them are perfect because nobody ever created a perfect system. I accept that; I am a realist. However what is happening here? Who is addressing this? I have discussed this before with Mr. Thompson. I will bring in the representatives from the HSE in a minute.