Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate he has been provided with the script. It is very brief and provides no answers. It contains statements I do not believe are factually correct. The Minister has been given assurances that the Dental Council and the Orthodontic Society of Ireland are using their influence to encourage dental practitioners to support the patients. Dentists have informed parents the Dental Council advised them not to take on patients from Oranmore Orthodontics. This directly contradicts what the Minister of State has said. The Minister of State said the Dental Council had written to orthodontists located near the practice to seek their co-operation. Parents are being told the exact opposite and that the Dental Council is telling practitioners not to do so. We do not know the reasons for this. It may be a power play. I do not know.

I will recount the story of one family.The daughter's braces broke and she was in pain with the wires sticking into her jaw. Her parents said: "No-one would help them so we resorted to a pliers being used to cut the wire to give my daughter some relief." That is worth repeating and is not the only case I have heard where parents' only solution has been to go and find a pliers in emergencies in Galway. It is, therefore, time for the Dental Council, the Minister and the Department to step up and sort this out now. As I said, on 4 August, parents were texted that the practice was winding up and on 14 September no solution is coming from the Department.