Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

Limited funding was made available during the past 18 months by the Minister for Health to deal with orthodontic care and that is very welcome. Unfortunately, according to the latest figures I saw, there are still approximately 13,000 children on the orthodontic waiting list and a significant number of them will be on that for four years. I acknowledge funding was made available by the Minister. It was a contribution but was a long way short of what was needed.