Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue relating to dentists, which I also bought up with the Tánaiste in November. There are 107 dentists in Meath, as listed on the government website. To my knowledge, not one of them is accepting new clients with medical cards. There are 35 in Navan, five in Trim and two in Enfield. This is for a population of 210,000. It is a serious issue. The dispute between the HSE and the dentists has gone on for more than 13 months.

It needs to be resolved. Is there any sign of that? I receive calls every day from patients in distress because no dentist in the county is accepting medical cards.

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