Martin Brady (Dublin North East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 195: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the action planned to eliminate waiting lists for children's orthodontic treatment. [30183/04]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The provision of orthodontic services is the statutory responsibility of the health boards and authority in the first instance. The aim of my Department is to develop the treatment capacity of orthodontics in a sustainable way over the longer term. I am pleased to advise the Deputy that a number of measures have been adopted to improve orthodontic services on a national basis. The grade of specialist in orthodontics has been created in the health board orthodontic service. In 2003, my Department and the health boards funded 19 dentists from various health boards for specialist in orthodontics qualifications at training programmes in Ireland and at three separate universities in the United Kingdom. The 19 trainees for the public orthodontic service include six dentists who successfully completed their training in September 2004 and have taken up duties with the boards. These measures will complement the other structural changes being introduced into the orthodontic service, including the creation of an auxiliary grade of orthodontic therapist to work in the orthodontic area.

Furthermore, the commitment of the Department to training development is manifested in the funding provided to both the training of specialist clinical staff and the recruitment of a professor in orthodontics for the Cork Dental School. This appointment will facilitate the development of an approved training programme leading to specialist qualification in orthodontics. My Department has given approval in principle to a proposal to further substantially improve training facilities for orthodontics at the school, which will ultimately support an enhanced teaching and treatment service to the wider region under the leadership of the professor of orthodontics.

In June 2002, my Department provided additional funding of €5 million from the treatment purchase fund to health authorities specifically for the purchase of orthodontic treatment. This funding enables boards to provide additional sessions for existing staff and to purchase treatment from private specialist orthodontic practitioners. The chief executive officers of the health boards and authority have informed my Department that at the end of the September 2004 quarter, there were 22,168 patients receiving orthodontic treatment in the public orthodontic service. This means there are over twice as many patients getting orthodontic treatment as there are waiting to be treated and more than 6,000 extra patients are getting treatment from the health boards and authority since the end of the September 2001 quarter.