Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim míle fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch di as ucht an t-am a thógáil leis an cheist seo a ghlacadh. Tá cúrsaí ortódóntacha san iarthar ag déanamh imní do chuid mhaith tuismitheoirí ansin, go háirithe i gContae Mhaigh Eo agus i gContae na Gaillimhe.

In October 2013 it was reported that nearly 40,000 children were waiting for orthodontic treatments, with 462 patients waiting longer than four years. Spokespersons on behalf of dentistry groups, such as the president of the Orthodontic Society, argued that one can only treat so many patients at a time and the numbers then were in line with the recruitment moratorium within the HSE.Others were stronger in their statements.

We were told that the lifting of the moratorium on the recruitment of dentists and support staff, including nurses and radiographers, would improve services and reduce waiting lists, but the newly elected president of the HSE's dental surgeon group stated that the recruitment embargo was having a negative impact. She went on to state:

Waiting lists for treatment under general anaesthesia, orthodontics and oral surgery have soared due to the lack of resources. This is a reprehensible consequence of the circumstances which now prevail in our public dental service.

She also stated that morale in the public dental sector had plummeted.

The Minister for Health was called on to reinstate sufficient numbers of staff to ensure that patients had access to equitable public dental and orthodontic services irrespective of location. It was noted at the time that the largest waiting lists were in the HSE west region, where 215 children were waiting between one and six months for orthodontic services, 705 were waiting for between seven and 12 months, 613 were waiting between 13 and 24 months, 740 were waiting between two and three years and 29 were waiting for longer than four years, a total of 2,302 children.

The then Minister of State, Deputy White, noted that an independent review of the services had been commissioned, but I have heard of no great improvement on the ground. I tabled this question to find out the current situation with orthodontic services. When the head of dental services in HSE west spoke at an Oireachtas briefing in the west, he was scathing of the cutbacks in the system and was concerned that not enough checks were being carried out of primary school children. There had been a scaling back in the number of children he was able to see. He believed that this would cause chronic difficulties down the road. The children attending orthodontic services are referred by clinics. Is there a major problem out there that we have not seen yet? Many children who should be receiving orthodontic referrals are not even getting the primary ongoing checks that are necessary. This issue is affected by the 76,606 people who are awaiting hospital treatment, a problem that is also greater in the west, because hospital treatment is necessary in some cases if an orthodontic procedure is to take place.

I hope that the Minister of State will have good news of an improvement. Has the independent review been completed? Has the moratorium eased a little and have more dentists, nurses and so forth been put in place? Have the waiting lists decreased since October 2013?