Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Dental services are not on the point of collapse. Health services are not on the point of collapse, to be clear. They are well funded and have had significant additional funding in the lifetime of this Government. When I agreed that there needed to be better engagement with the Irish Dental Association, I called a meeting and informed it that we needed to fundamentally reset the relationship. It had not been a healthy relationship. It was quite adversarial. I said I wanted to try to foster the kind of relationship with it that the Department has with the Irish Medical Organisation. The Department does not always agree with the IMO and vice versa, but it is a good professional relationship. The €130 million deal we did with GPs earlier this year was because of that. I said to the Irish Dental Association that we would reset the relationship and get all our officials together. One of my assistant secretaries is leading that work with the association. I said that we would put it all on the table, including fees for the scheme and the design of the scheme, which needs to be more flexible so that dentists can provide the care that they need.