Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

I am again raising the lack of training places for dental students. I have given these figures before. UCC takes in 25 per annum and Trinity also takes in 25 but those two colleges are then taking in non-EU students. In Cork it is 36 and in Trinity it is 21. I know the RCSI has recently opened a dental college and it is taking in 20, but that does not deal with the issue.

The Irish Dental Association identified more than two years ago that there was a shortage of over 500 dentists in the system. As the Minister of State is aware, the population has increased dramatically by over 40%. We are not able to provide the support and care that people require, in particular in the public health sector. The number of dentists in 2006 was 330. By 2022, it was down to 254. At a time when there is a huge increase in population, there has been a 25% decrease in the number of dentists working in the public sector.

The other problem in the public sector is that two thirds of positions advertised have not been filled. What is really concerning now is that we have a scenario whereby UCC applied to the Department of Health for €4.5 million to open a facility in Blackpool so that it could use it for training students, and to increase the number of students it could take in. That application was submitted in 2022. Three years later it has still not been approved. Likewise with TCD, which applied again in 2022 to take in an extra 16 Irish-EU students, but again that application has not been progressed. I understand that the Royal College of Surgeons is going to take in extra people in 2026 and 2027, but that still does not deal with the issue we currently face.

I will read from the Irish Dental Association report issued in September:

In 2023, 104,000 eligible schoolchildren in Ireland missed dental screening appointments due to a shortage of HSE public-only dentists. This represents roughly half of the eligible cohort denied vital dental appointments.

There are now barely 600 dentists actively participating in the medical card scheme nationally.

Three or four years ago more than 1,200 dentists were working privately, who were also doing public work but they have all left.

With less than 600 dentists actively providing public care, "this is equivalent to 1 dentist per 2,500 eligible patients. The huge exodus...from the scheme is forcing patients to travel further to see dentists, to wait longer for appointments..."

HSE figures from February 2022, show that there are 13,294 patients on orthodontics waiting lists, 11,088 of whom are waiting longer than a year, and 5,076 waiting longer than 3 years.

This is what we are now facing, which is the reason I am raising the issue again. I will continue to raise it until we get co-operation between the Department of higher education and the Department of Health as regards how we progress the expansion of dental training.

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