Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I agree with other speakers in that successive Governments have left dental services for public patients to collapse in the State. The dental services scheme for medical card holders has been in a state of chaos for years. In the term of the previous Dáil, the then Minister, Stephen Donnelly, assured us at a meeting of the health committee that a breakthrough on dentists was imminent and that services would be restored for all medical card holders. That was clearly not the case. Hundreds of thousands are left without access to dental treatment they simply cannot afford to obtain privately.

Dental care is another aspect of the healthcare sector that we have seen privatised by stealth. Residential care services and eye and hearing services are other examples of services that the State is steadily scaling back, relying on the private sector to pick up the slack. In disability services, we expect charities to do likewise. We must initiate a widespread recruitment plan for public dentists and sort out the DTSS so medical card holders can gain access to treatment. It is simply unacceptable to leave hundreds of thousands of people without access to dental care. This is an area of health in which it is guaranteed that a person will get worse without care. Having a dental issue can have a debilitating effect on quality of life. We cannot even give schoolchildren one check-up to ensure their teeth are developing properly.

It is pointless to talk about how we are spending more and more on health every year when there are fundamental services degrading over time. A dental service plan has been long promised. It must be published and discussed in this House and the health committee so we can get back on track and give people care at the level they deserve.

When I was chair of the health committee, we visited Daisy Hill Hospital. It has a free theatre for a number of days per week. It is ideal for dental surgery in the Border area. The Minister might consider that proposal.

See this speech in context