Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Senators Ross and Norris highlighted the importance of the examination. In Senator Norris's case, if he had not had that examination, the unfortunate finding of macular degeneration would not have been discovered. We have kept the examination so that such issues can be identified, including oral cancers which other speakers have mentioned. I have no doubt that if people think something is free, they will benefit from it. The examination for both eyes and teeth will still be free and we anticipate that some hundreds of thousands will benefit from that.

To make it clear to Senator Buttimer, the dentist gets approval from the Department. It is not that the dentist gives approval. If the treatment has started or he has approval, obviously that continues into next year, can be finished and will be paid for.

The issue of people travelling abroad for dental treatment is quite true. We do not see people going abroad for eye treatment because of competition and because prices have come down so much here. It was interesting that when the McCarthy report considered the social insurance fund and the treatment benefit scheme, not only did it recommend that it should no longer be there at all and suggest we cannot afford the scheme, it also indicated the treatment benefit scheme may have contributed to higher prices for dental treatment in this country. The competition authority has made a number of recommendations in trying to promote competition in the dental services so consumers can get better value for money but dentists have not taken it up.

There is a view that perhaps we are contributing to this lack of competition because there was a steady and regular payment coming from the State. Hopefully, the revision to the payments and to the scheme will encourage competition among dentists. It is very interesting that none of us have received much by way of representations from opticians - it is nearly all from dentists. Opticians were firmly of the view that what they really wanted to hold onto was the eye test because that was what could identify all of the problems.

We have made the saving of €54 million, which is a not insignificant sum for a fund that will be in deficit by the middle of next year. We are keeping the basics open, and the hearing aids and so on are being kept as well. It is not as if that scheme was curtailed go deo arís but we will return to it next year.