Mr. Bernard Gloster:

I thank the Senator. Ms Broderick will talk to the detail of UHL as that is her patch. On the dental question, we actually have loads of dentists in Ireland. They just do not want to work in the public dental scheme or operate the dental treatment services scheme, DTSS, any more. The Minister has said the numbers are failing despite increased incentives around fees. We fundamentally need to revisit that and what we are going to do about it. I do not want to presuppose where the Minister will land with that but we are trying to make interventions. I believe the DTSS is one scheme that has to be radically reformed.

On the overall position of UHL, while the hospital uses third-party insourcing, again, it is a question of what benefit the public gets for that. Going back to Deputy Cahill's reference to hospitals and comparisons, UHL gets a lot of criticism, from me included, and it deserves it sometimes, but it is one of the best performing hospitals in the country in terms of managing its waiting lists.