Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 283: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Health and Children that the orthodontic programme initiated by a doctor (details supplied) in Limerick should be restored and become the template for a national programme; if she will ensure that persons involved in this programme will not have their careers adversely affected by previous conflicts with her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26811/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The recent report by the Joint Committee on Health and Children is a follow up to its earlier report of 2002, The Orthodontic Service in Ireland. As the committee makes clear, the report should be read as an appendix to the 2002 report.

The Deputy will be aware that under the Dentists Act 1985 the regulation of professional education and training in dentistry is statutorily vested by the Oireachtas in the Dental Council alone. The Dental Council is the competent authority in Ireland for issuing certificates that internationally recognise dentists who have completed specialist training in orthodontics. It is the Dental Council, through the Irish Committee for Specialist Training in Dentistry, that decides whether to accredit specialist training regimes. The Minister for Health and Children does not have a statutory role in the recognition of training regimes in dentistry.

My Department is not the employer of the person to whom the Deputy refers. The Department has, in the past, dealt with allegations made by the person referred to by the Deputy against officials of this Department. The Department carried out an examination of the allegations and found no evidence to support them.

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 orthodontic service. My Department and the Health Service Executive, HSE, have funded 22 dentists from various HSE areas for specialist in orthodontics qualifications at training programmes in Ireland and at three separate universities in the United Kingdom. The most recent group of 13 trainees have now completed their training and have taken up posts in the HSE since 1 October 2005. This means that almost half the orthodontists in Ireland are now working in the public health service.

My Department has been informed by the HSE that, at the end of the June 2005 quarter, there were 23,216 patients receiving orthodontic treatment in the public orthodontic service. This means that there are over twice as many patients getting orthodontic treatment as there are waiting to be treated and more than 7,000 extra patients are getting treatment from the HSE since the end of the June 2001 quarter. The improvement in quality of treatment and numbers being treated is directly attributable to the steps that have already been taken and will continue to be taken to ensure ongoing improvements to the service. The addition of 13 specialists in orthodontics to the service since 1 October 2005 will have a further significant impact on numbers in treatment and waiting lists.

My Department has met the HSE regarding the latest joint committee report. Since that meeting the HSE, to ensure ongoing training, has committed funding for the training of a further four orthodontists. My Department, in conjunction with the HSE, is considering each of the recommendations set out in the report of the joint committee.