Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement debate this morning on the issue of dental services. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Health. The Irish Dental Association came before the Joint Committee on Health on 5 July regarding issues within the dental service. The chief executive of the association, Fintan Hourihan, and others have expressed on the record their concern about the medical card scheme and the chronic delays in delivering the school screening programme. They are concerned about the staffing and resourcing of the dental sector, based on research in September 2022 which showed that the majority of vacancies in the dental sector cannot be filled. At that time two thirds of practices that had tried to recruit dentists in the previous 12 months could not fill the vacancies, and neither could half of the practices that attempted to recruit nurses or hygienists. Mr. Hourihan went on to say that the situation is stark, more so in the public sector where the HSE is obliged to provide care for children and for special care patients, including an orthodontic services for children with severe orthodontic needs.

I acknowledge that the budget announced last year provided funding of €4.75 million to support the development of a new prevention-focused oral healthcare system for children from birth to the age of seven. Obviously children are the most vulnerable people in our society. Unfortunately, they will continue to fall behind with their oral health, according to Mr. Hourihan, and will shoulder the burden of a system that has been underfunded for some time. The analysis shows that an extra 500 dentists throughout the public and private sectors are required to adequately meet the needs of the rising population and to replace retiring dentists. He recommends various measures to improve the supply of dentists, including significant investment in and expansion of the two dental schools in Cork and Dublin because Ireland does not produce enough dentists. He was cautiously optimistic about the recent announcement of increased college places by the Minister, Deputy Harris. I certainly welcome that.

At that committee I asked whether, given that numbers are ramping up and investment is being made in the colleges, there could be a role for retired dentists in ensuring the school screening programme is taken up and all the necessary checks are done for all our primary school children throughout the country. Unfortunately, based on the evidence, that is not happening. Some schools or classes have been skipped. Mr. Hourihan said that as long as dentists are registered to practice with the Dental Council of Ireland, they are entitled to see patients. He said that although there would be no reason due to age that they could not contribute to the school screening service, flexibility within the employment rules and policies of the HSE would be needed to allow that to happen. However, it is possible and could happen. He said it would require the HSE to revisit some of its employment practices. A person's entitlement to practise as a dentist is not linked to age but to whether they have a license from the Dental Council of Ireland.

I am calling for an examination of whether there is a basis for a short-term intervention to use dentists who have retired but would be in a position to work in the school screening service and would be happy to do so, on a part-time basis if preferred. This would not be actual dental work but school screening work to allow students and children to be assessed for ongoing developmental issues of their teeth. I look forward to the Minister of State's reply.