Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion. The fact the Government is going to allow it to pass and do nothing about it will not change the fact that on the Dáil record, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will be named and shamed for their chronic underinvestment in public dentistry. The record will show, without opposition from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, that over decades when one party or the other was in power, public dentistry has been allowed to go to rot. It is part of their general neoliberal strategy of privatisation by stealth. They run down the public system so that those who can afford to are forced to pay privately and to hell with those who cannot afford to. We leave such people behind, suffering on waiting lists for years as their teeth rot in their heads and their orthodontic problems get worse. There is an incredible cruelty to this. Thousands of people are left to suffer from recurring toothaches. Teenagers are left with social anxiety because they need braces but cannot get them. It is also penny-wise and pound-foolish. Delayed care is more expensive. In dentistry, as in all other forms of healthcare, prevention is better than cure.

What does it look like on the ground? In Tallaght, the impact of cuts to public dental care has been enormous. In the past, children in Tallaght were able to access pubic dental services in St. Dominic's but are now forced to travel across the city to Crumlin for every dental appointment. There are long delays in the system, with kids waiting years to be assessed for orthodontic treatment and then spending further years on orthodontic waiting lists. Parents in Tallaght are being forced to fork out up to €5,000 for braces so their children can access treatment in time for it to work. Families are being forced into debt to get their kids the dental care they need. The HSE's own website states that the best age for orthodontic work to begin is 12 to 13 years of age but children are routinely being left on waiting lists until they are in their late teens or 20s.

One Tallaght mother I know had to pay €4,7000 each for her two kids to get braces privately. A third child, now 17, has been on a waiting list for complex orthodontic treatment for more than four years. She was quoted €15,000 to get the treatment she needs done privately. This is utterly unacceptable. The Government must fund public dental services properly. It must recruit hundreds of new public dentists across the country. With €65 billion in Government surpluses expected over the next few years, there is no excuse for failing to provide the public dental services we need.

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