Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I will just give the Minister of State some figures. Before Covid-19, in the first quarter of 2019, 5,175 children got dental screenings in Cork city. In the first quarter of this year, it was 4,938. There were fewer children seen in the first quarter of 2025 than there were in the first quarter of 2019. We must factor in that during the Covid years, screening went below 2,500.

There is a crisis now in dental care for children in this State and there seems to be no plan to deal with it. In an area I represent in Cork city, Mayfield, the Government closed Harrington Square and the centre at the COPE Foundation where dental services were provided. Now children in that part of the city, in Ballyphehane, the Glen, Mayfield and Glanmire, must travel to the other side of the city to get services. How can that be right? This is something the Government has done for the last number of years. It has stripped services out of the north side of Cork city, whether it is dental services or doctors. We are waiting for primary care centres. There is no primary care centre in Glanmire, Mayfield or Blarney. What we have now are waiting lists for children to be seen.

We are talking about dental services here. There is a two-tier system in this State where if people have money, their children will get the care they need and if they do not have money, they go on a waiting list for years. I have spoken to parents whose children were so long on the system waiting to get treatment that they became adults. How can that be right? Then once they become adults, they are not entitled to the care and they have to go on a different list. Enough is enough; children deserve and need proper dental screening and proper dental care.

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