Mr. Fintan Hourihan:

We would greatly appreciate that. We wrote to the Minister of Health about the DTSS in 2012 but unfortunately there has been no engagement. As with other contracts and schemes, the Department is hiding behind competition law even though the last Attorney General stated there is no reason the Department cannot negotiate with representative bodies. We would like that to happen sooner rather than later.

Dentists are obliged to display their fees. The association actively supports and promotes this practice and surveys have shown that fees are displayed in 98% or 99% of cases.

A question was asked about fees paid for seeing primary school children. Obviously there is no fee if they are seen by the HSE but the Deputy may have been asking about private visits.