Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

There is an entitlement for all children regardless of what type of primary school. In recent years, because the local HSE dental service has insufficient numbers of dentists, they tend to end up seeing children only once in sixth class. I know this is the case in County Galway. In sixth class, some of the children are 11 or 12, and are only seeing a dentist for the first time. Decisions have to be made. If you do not have enough dentists, you have to decide what classes you are seeing. In more recent years it was quite common for the service to be scaled back with only two of the three screenings taking place. In most parts of the country, it is effectively only once in primary school. It has been a struggle. In some parts of the country, it is only until secondary school that there is any kind of screening. We have had examples in counties Laois and Offaly where children are only being seen for the first time in second year of secondary school, and in some cases only in transition year. That is not because a decision has been made to exclude certain schools. It is because there are not enough dentists to go out. All children in all schools are entitled to it and should be seen, but they are not being seen because there are not enough dentists.