Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is Cork, so it has to be important. Is the Deputy finished? Yes. I just want to follow up on something that was mentioned and there are a couple of points I want to make. Mr. Hourihan mentioned that there have been no meaningful negotiations. In March 2021, I put a question to the Minister regarding the medical card scheme and, at the time, he said that he was in negotiations and was expecting movement soon. This was in reply to a question in the Dáil in March 2021. Is anything happening with regard to those negotiations? What are the stumbling blocks?

The other question relates to what Mr. Hourihan said about the 600 dentists in the medical card scheme. We know that dentists are leaving that scheme all the time. What does the Government need to do to encourage more of those dentists to stay in the scheme? What are the challenges dentists are facing? Why are they leaving the scheme in such large numbers?