Dáil debates

Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Dental Treatment Services: Motion [Private Members]

 

4:10 am

Photo of Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

I thank Deputy Stanley and his group for tabling this very important motion, particularly in view of the crisis we have in dental care throughout the country. In the past 12 months alone, Cork has lost 58 dentists who were providing treatment to medical card holders. This is almost one quarter of all dentists who are part of the dental treatment service scheme. These include 22 dentists in the south Lee area, 25 in the north Lee area, eight in west Cork and two in north Cork. These are not just numbers; they are people and families left without access to basic dental care.

The figures speak for themselves, with a 23.57% drop in the number of dentists participating in the dental treatment service scheme in only one year. We are met with nothing but a mass exodus from the scheme, which is no longer fit for purpose. One Cork dentist described the system as being like banging your head against a brick wall. Who could blame dentists? The scheme is outdated. It was designed in 1994 and it has failed to evolve in order to adapt to modern dental practices. Dentists are restricted to providing only two fillings per year, but they can perform an unlimited number of extractions. That is not healthcare; it is damage control. The HSE has admitted that access to routine care is now somewhat restricted and that the focus has shifted to emergency care. Emergency care is not a substitute for prevention. It is not a substitute for dignity. Dentists are burning out and patients are being left behind. The system is collapsing under the weight of its own neglect.

I call on the Minister for Health and the Government to act now. Reform the dental treatment service scheme, restore clinical autonomy, invest in prevention and, above all, ensure that every person in Cork and throughout Ireland can access the dental care to which they are entitled with their medical cards. We cannot allow this crisis to deepen. The people of Cork deserve better, our dentists deserve better and our healthcare system must do better.

The waiting time to see a HSE dentist for a routine visit for a child is five years. The urgent waiting time is more than two years. All children in west Cork, from Mizen Head and Castletownbere to Kinsale, are being referred to see dentists in Clonakilty or at St. Finbarr's Hospital campus in Cork city. There is no service west of Clonakilty. It is questionable that children who should be seen urgently are being put on a routine list. There are children in west Cork who have been put on the routine list at 14 years of age and are never seen as children because by the time they come to be seen they are aged over 18. They are then in the adult dental service and go onto another waiting list.

When I was growing up, there was a dental service in every town and village. In the name of God, what has gone wrong in this country? We take one step forward and two, three or four steps back. A mile or two down the road, we were able to meet our dentist on a weekly basis when we had problems. There was no issue. Now we have to travel 40 or 50 miles and we still cannot get to see a dentist.

If you cannot afford it, "To hell with you", you just lie in pain.

I brought up this issue a couple of weeks ago. I attended a public meeting at Oranmore, County Galway, with Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice and Councillor Declan Kelly. I met parents whose children had been scammed by a local orthodontist and neglected by the Dental Council of Ireland. These parents paid large sums upfront in 2022 for their children's dental treatment only to find out they were being deceived. Some children were left with misaligned jaws and others with braces but no treatment plan. Some had to remove their braces themselves or with the help of others over the phone. One girl had a wire sticking into her mouth, which her boyfriend eventually cut with a clippers. These parents have faced significant challenges as a result of the previous Government, the dental council and the former Minister for Health with no solutions or support available. The Dental Council of Ireland is supposed to investigate the fitness of registered dentists to practise based on allegations of professional misconduct or unfitness due to physical or mental disability. According to the parents of these children, however, the dental council has done absolutely nothing to help them. These parents and children have been left more than €2 million out of pocket. Let us imagine €2 million paid by parents who are hard-working people in Oranmore. It was sad to hear the stories at that public meeting. Out of respect, I travelled there to listen to their stories because Councillor Declan Kelly asked me to. They have had no satisfaction from the dental council.

We are living in a very tough time for some people out there. They are the ordinary folk, not the extraordinary folk. These people deserve answers. To be left €2 million out of pocket as these people were, tells parents they may not be able to send a child any further in education because of the amount of money that was wasted. It was initially paid up to get a proper dental service and they ended up getting no service. In the worst-case scenario, some of them already have a service that has been left unattended.

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