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

It is important that, rather than getting the message today that the number of claims is up and so on, we should be looking at trying to fix the system. As public representatives we have all got those cases of people who felt that they were hard done by or that something went wrong within the medical system. We get those cases constantly. Anecdotally we all hear stories dissuading people from going to a particular hospital or doctor for an operation, for example. There is a lot of that out there.

I will move on to the Estimates. For anyone looking at the Estimates, even the language we use is fairly confusing. Huge sums of money are involved. I mention the medical inflation and we seem to be getting mixed messages from senior officials on that, which is extraordinary. They say they were not aware of the amounts or of the scale of medical inflation. We are getting different messages in other committees on people not really understanding it. It is worth making that point again and again, particularly on the Estimates and the overspend.

One area that has not been touched on and that has had no extra funding allocated to it in budget 2024 is oral healthcare and dentistry. The Minister is on record as saying there is a traditional blind spot here but again there does not seem to be any additional money for it. If you look at other areas of the healthcare system, there have been positive increases, but in oral health there is a huge problem. There is a huge problem for those who have medical cards in that the system has almost collapsed in some areas. It is impossible for anyone who is on a medical card to try to get a dentist, and people have to travel further and further. The Minister accepts that this is a blond spot but yet there does not seem to be any additional funding.

Our school screening services have been severely restricted. Children are supposed to be seen by the public health dentist in second, fourth and sixth classes but we are hearing that in a lot of cases it is not until the fourth year in secondary school that they are seen. I do not get it. Everyone accepts the importance of oral health and yet the public system does not seem to be on a par or responding to the needs of people. It is a bit like the nursing homes that were pushing people into the private sector. Similarly, with dentistry we are pushing people into the private sector and we are not addressing the gap. A lot of people cannot afford private dentistry and a lot of people cannot get a dentist. What is the Minister's solution to this? Clearly it is not to provide additional funding. Some of it will be trying to solve the issue with dentists and the medical card. It is a huge area and it does not appear to be addressed in the Estimates.