Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is the Tánaiste aware that medical card dental services have completely collapsed in Mayo? We contacted each of the 30 dentists in the county listed by the HSE on its website. Of all the many dental practices throughout the county, only one said it was currently treating medical card patients and taking on new patients, and even then it was only doing so for specific treatments. In a county the size of Mayo, with a population of 130,000, that is shocking. Ten practices told us they are no longer providing any medical card dental services and only one practice is taking on new medical card patients. It is not good enough. This has happened because between 2017 and 2020, the allocation for medical card patients was cut by 30% from €3.5 million. There are two issues here. We need to know what the Government is going to do as a matter of urgency. We also need to know why the HSE is putting out false information around this issue.

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