Cathal Byrne (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for taking this matter. Each week, I am contacted by the parent of a child awaiting a dental procedure or appointment. We know that, nationwide, waiting lists are starting to extend. Approximately 2,000 children have been waiting over four years for orthodontic treatment. I recognise that we now have an additional third level training facility in the new RCSI facility in Sandyford, which, when fully up and running, will produce an extra 75 graduate dentists in addition to those who are currently being trained in Trinity College and UCC.

I want to speak about alternative opportunities to increase the number of dentists in the country. Fifteen years ago, there were approximately 23% more dentists working with the HSE than there are today. While there were approximately 3,100 dentists registered and practising in 2019, and that figure has gone up to 3,888 in the last set of figures for private practice, we need to recruit more dentists into the system and the HSE.

One of the ideas in that area is that we allow dentists who have been trained overseas to work here. A lady who contacted me recently is a qualified dentist from Bolivia. She has an international qualification and worked there for many years as a dentist.She is currently working here as a dental nurse. She told me one of the difficulties she has encountered is that it is taking so long for her to be allowed sit the exam. She would like the opportunity to sit the exam but because it only takes place in an 18- to 24-month application window, she is not in a position to do that. If we are serious about getting to grips with the long waiting lists we currently have in the HSE for dental care we have to look at taking on more internationally trained, recognised and qualified dentists and allowing them to sit the exam here to ensure they are coming with the highest quality standards people expect and deserve. While the RCSI's new college took its first set of students back in September it will take five years before we see qualified dentists coming through from that, so this is a mechanism we have to look at. I would be grateful for an update from the Department on whether it is possible to speed up the length of time between those international qualification recognition tests.