Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this debate on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. I thank the Senator for the opportunity to address the issue of capacity in the HSE’s public dental service to provide care, particularly to children in primary school. The salaried HSE public dental service provides care to several groups of patients, including those with complex and additional needs. In addition, the public dental service also provides a programme which includes screening and necessary treatment for children at ages corresponding to second class, sixth class and, subject to capacity, fourth class. Emergency care is also provided for children up to 16 years of age and those with complex and additional needs. This service provides care to many children and adults who would not otherwise have access to oral healthcare services. The Minister for Health is aware that, coming out of the pandemic, there are backlogs in the targeted primary school screening programme in particular, leading to delays in children receiving their first appointment. Officials in the Department of Health engage with the HSE on an ongoing basis to understand and address any challenges arising in the provision of public dental services. The Minister has been assured by the HSE that it is continuing to restore dental screening and treatment to children up to 16 years of age through recruitment initiatives to fill vacancies that have arisen or may arise, prioritising clinical treatment in patient groups and reallocating clinical resources according to greatest need.

Regarding capacity and recruitment, it is extremely heartening to note that we currently have more registered dentists in Ireland than ever before, with 3,581 at present, which represents an additional 109 registered dentists since March 2023. This reflects positive trends with the comparative figure being 3,217 in 2018. However, I accept that our population is growing every day. The Minister for Health supports the creation of additional capacity in higher education, including in oral healthcare, to which the Senator referred in regard to the Minister, Deputy Harris. The Higher Education Authority, HEA, is undertaking a process to identify a set of options to achieve this important step towards health workforce sustainability for Ireland.The HSE has confirmed that for August 2023, 802 whole-time equivalents were working in the public dental service across all grades, including 244 dentist whole-time equivalents. Concerted efforts are ongoing within the HSE to address any current vacancies. A number of community healthcare organisations, CHOs, have run competitions for dentists, dental nurses and dental hygienists to fill vacancies, with panels created from the recruitment competitions. These positions are available for any person who meets the required eligibility criteria to apply. That comes back to the point raised by the Senator, which is a very fair and reasonable ask he has made regarding retired dentists, a short-term intervention and a school screening programme.

As the Senator will know, we require a sufficient number of appropriately trained oral healthcare professionals, including dentists, hygienists, clinical dental technicians, orthodontic therapists, dental nurses and other supporting oral healthcare workers. The Department of Health has commenced work on a workforce census across the oral healthcare sector with a view to ascertaining the current skill mix within our workforce so that we can support future training needs.