Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

We have been involved in discussions with the HSE. In two parts of the country, namely, counties Sligo and Kerry, the HSE opens its clinics in the evenings to allow medical card patients to be seen. That is primarily because there are not enough dentists in Kerry, Sligo and the north west to see them during the day. It is very much a stopgap solution. We have had discussions with the HSE and the Department of Health and stated that if that policy were to be extended to other locations, it might help to alleviate the problem. It would require clinics and resources being made available, but private dentists could go in and work. That could be of assistance as an interim measure but, realistically, it would only ever be an interim measure and we cannot be certain how much of a difference it would make. We have discussed interim emergency measures but the thing we cannot understand is why, when there is an apparent willingness to discuss a new scheme, we are still waiting for those talks and do not have any sense of when they will begin. Ultimately, that is what is required.