Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response and for her assurance that the HSE has stated that local services on the ground will assist in this regard. I will be contacting my local HSE office this afternoon and I will return with to the House with its response on this.

I acknowledge that the Department has pledged a root and branch review of the dental treatment services and to align the scheme with the national oral health policy. This must be expedited and we need to get a timeline and to see a new approach to the provision of dental services in this country. The Minister of State has acknowledged the concerns that exist and that this will be addressed in the context of the implementation of the national oral health policy but what does that implementation mean on the ground? When are we going to see a difference?

I also note the Minister of State has talked about a governance framework to oversee and facilitate this. All of this is very good, as is the fact that the chief dental officer is meeting the stakeholders but we need timelines in this regard because people simply cannot wait. People on low incomes who are having problems cannot wait.

In a final point, one dentist with whom I spoke and who has patients on the medical card scheme is now being inundated with new patients. He told me he cannot take the new patients although he is completely happy to support those patients he already has. He said, however, that if there is pressure on somebody like him, he will have to opt out of this scheme too. That is where the problems are in respect of the existing 38 dentists the Minister of State was talking about, which is that they cannot take new patients on.