Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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84. To ask the Minister for Health the provisions that his Department is making to provide emergency dental cover for adult medical card holders who are unable to access a dental service due to the current oral healthcare crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38125/22]

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Last week, a man from Wexford in his 80th year, Seán Hayes, pulled his own teeth having contacted seven dentists in Wexford as well as the primary care centre at Grogan's Road, all of whom told him they could do nothing for him. He said on local radio that he blames the Government and not the dentists. I am asking the Minister for Health what provisions his Department is making to provide emergency dental cover for adult medical card holders unable to access dental services due to the current oral healthcare crisis and request that he makes a statement on the matter.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The situation the Deputy has described is unacceptable. Everybody who has a medical card needs to be able to access a dentist under the dental treatment service scheme. As the Deputy has quite rightly identified, the number of dentists participating in the scheme has fallen substantially, particularly over the past two years. There was a precipitous drop in participants in 2019, 2020, 2021 and this year.

I looked at the figures for the Deputy’s county and that is seen in Wexford as well. Unfortunately, the majority of dentists who were on the scheme just three years ago – just before Covid – are no longer on the scheme. That is causing huge pressure in terms of people in Wexford who have medical cards and who are trying to find a dentist who is on the scheme.

What are we doing? There is a longer-term solution to this, which is root and branch reform of the dental treatment scheme. That is something on which the Department of Health is engaging with the representative body, namely, the Irish Dental Association. However, that is not enough because it will take time for that kind of scheme to be negotiated and implemented.

In the meantime, for this year, I have allocated a very significant amount of extra money. The forecast spend for this year would have been about €40 million for this scheme. We have increased that from €40 million to €66 million. We have increased the amount of funding into it by more than a half. That has meant two things. First, there are services available, such as scale and polish, which had been removed from the scheme, which we added back into it. More importantly for the dentists, the fees that we are paying have dramatically increased. What we would like to see and what I would ask the dentists to do is to re-engage with the scheme. We have many dentists around the country and, indeed, in Wexford who had been involved in this scheme for many years. The fees are now substantially higher and I would ask those dentists to re-engage and stay with us while we negotiate our new scheme.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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"Substantially higher" would be somewhat of an exaggeration. The question I asked the Minister was what he is doing about access to emergency services. This is an 80-year-old man whose wife died a couple of years ago and who also lost his son. It is in no way reflective of the €21 billion we put into health in order to have a First World health service. As Mr. Hayes said, it is a Third World health service. Somebody of 80 years of age who worked and paid tax all his life having to pull four of his own teeth certainly does not instil confidence. I am not sure if he was here today he would have been voting for the Government in the confidence motion. Those were his words on a local radio in Wexford. An 80-year-old man pulled four of his own teeth. There was no emergency service.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In an emergency situation, people should get in touch with the HSE, which will do several things. The first thing it will do is contact dentists who are on the scheme in the area and try to arrange emergency care or an emergency visit. In an extreme situation, the care can be provided directly by a HSE dentist. However, there is a very limited number of HSE dentists and they are spending most of their time treating children, for example. That is the direct answer in terms of emergency care.

The Deputy comes from a commercial background. If she saw an organisation that had an increase in its revenue of more than 50% in one year or saw revenue going into an organisation increasing from €40 million to €66 million, I think, in fairness, the Deputy would call that a substantial increase. So let us not dismiss an increase in funding in one year from €40 million to €66 million.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Before the Minister is finished waffling, let me tell him the response from the HSE to a recent parliamentary question in relation to emergency services. It stated that the HSE is not resourced to provide treatment to adults and does not have the capacity to do so. That was in response to Parliamentary Question No. 767 received on 31 May, a month ago. Clearly, what the Minister has just told me about the HSE is a load of rubbish and he does not have a clue. A man who paid tax his whole life pulling four of his own teeth is absolutely criminal. The Minister cannot defend it, nor can he give me the answer as to where the next 80-year-old is supposed to go rather than pulling their own teeth. Unfortunately, it is not the €66 million we are discussing. It is the fact that we do not have emergency services for adults in Wexford and the Minister is not aware of it.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The only person waffling here is the Deputy. She dismissed a massive increase. She said that an increase from €40 million to €66 million is not substantial. That is nonsense. The only person talking rubbish here right now is the Deputy.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Let me tell the Minister what the Irish Dental Association said-----

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy does not even have the courtesy to let other people in this Chamber speak. We all have to listen to her nonsense, waffle and insults.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Seán Hayes believes that too.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I have just answered the questions. By the way, the Deputy just described the Irish healthcare system as a Third World healthcare system.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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No, I did not. Seán Hayes did that on the radio.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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And the Deputy repeated it here. I wonder how many Third World healthcare systems she has been in. What an insult from the Deputy, as an elected Member, to come here and say that. What an insult to an insult to all of the dentists, doctors-----

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Good man.

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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-----and nurses. What we will do while she waffles is fix the problem.

Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent)
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Take your time.