Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for taking this Adjournment matter. I wish to raise the issue of the abolition of the PRSI scheme for dental and optical services for people throughout this State. I wish to put on record that my party and I are more than disappointed by the scrapping in the recent budget of essential services for which people pay. I believe the full impact and implications of this course have not yet been realised by the public at large. However, people will realise this as the year progresses. They will make appointments to have their regular checkups, to have their teeth cleaned or to undergo the usual treatments they have come to expect under the PRSI scheme, only to find they are no longer available to them. First, I wish to stress that the treatments that were available for dental and optical services under the PRSI scheme were not free, as they were paid for through the PRSI scheme. People pay PRSI from their pay-cheques to participate in and avail of these highly successful schemes. For example, the optical scheme was introduced well over 40 years ago, I believe by a Fine Gael-led Government. Negotiations took place at which it was agreed that basic needs of ordinary people would be covered by this scheme into which people paid and made a contribution.

It is fair to state that both the optical and dental schemes have played a highly significant role in improving the health of ordinary people nationwide. They have ensured that the optical and dental well-being of people has improved greatly and has been transformed over the past two decades. It is lamentable that the Government can be so short-sighted, if Members will pardon the pun, to eliminate such services almost completely for such short-term financial gains. Moreover, the Minister of State should not attempt to dress this up as these schemes have been virtually completely wiped out in the recent budget.

To put this in context, the optical scheme is very interesting. Approximately 200,000 people benefited from the scheme on an annual basis at a cost of just €15 million to the Exchequer. Consequently, no major saving is involved. It is a minor and unnecessary saving in the grand scheme of things, when one considers the type of savings that were being found in the most recent budget. Similarly, with regard to the dental scheme, it is estimated that in 2008, 400,000 patients presented under the PRSI scheme for approximately 1.5 million dental treatments at an estimated cost of approximately €100 million. Consequently, in the grand scheme of things, the savings achieved are extremely small when compared with the benefit that was derived from the operation of such schemes.

It is no exaggeration to state this will do untold damage to the nation's health because the early detection that resulted on foot of the provision under both schemes of checkups, in particular, will be a significant loss and will lead to a deterioration in the nation's health. I also believe it will cost more to the Exchequer in the long term to try to repair the damage that is being done by unravelling the scheme. From a business perspective, I know of opticians who have invested significant sums of money in new equipment to be able to compete in the world of Specsavers and similar chainstore opticians. Although such people raised their game to meet this challenge, they were given only three weeks notice of the abolition of a scheme that had existed for more than four decades. Moreover, even their contracts with the State stipulated that they should have been given three months notice. Although there is a question as to whether a breach of contract took place, perhaps that is a discussion for another day. I will conclude by referring to a cliché that has been bandied about but that also is a fact. The Government was happy to bail out bankers when the time came and was happy to underwrite the debts incurred voluntarily by reckless developers. However, it also is happy to sacrifice the health of the nation to make minuscule savings. People are beginning to wake up and realise what has happened in the most recent budget. By the end of the year, the Government will be faced by hundreds of thousands of angry people who are being denied essential services by the State.

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