Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on whether investments in dental businesses that were made in the period 2003 to 2007 were based on assumed annual turnover figures dating from that period; his further views on the outcome of the November 2010 survey of dental practices conducted by the Irish Dental Association, which shows that practice incomes have fallen by 35% to 40% nationally this year, and if he acknowledges that 70,000 fewer dental procedures were conducted in this State to date this year than last year because of changes to the PRSI scheme; if he further acknowledges the very high costs associated with dental practice commencement during the period 2003 to 2007; if the State plans to assist pertinent struggling young practitioners with borrowings from banks in which the State is a shareholder via debt forgiveness or renewed credit arrangements that are affordable; his further views on whether, notwithstanding distressed credit issues, the existing practitioners offer the best hope of partial finance recoupment; his views on creditor-financier liability in this context; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47229/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The operation of the Treatment Benefits Scheme, which includes Dental Benefit, is funded from the Social Insurance Fund and is the responsibility of my colleague Mr Eamon O Cuiv TD, Minister for Social Protection.

I am informed by the Department of Social Protection that payments made under the Treatment Benefit Scheme show a drop of 59.8% in 2010 over 2009. However as dental practice incomes also include private payments and HSE payments it is not possible for that Department to know what the overall reduction in income to dental practices was in 2010. Approximately 933,000 fewer treatments were paid as part of the Dental Benefit Scheme in 2010, as compared to 2009. The Department of Social Protection is not in a position to quantify the overall reduction in treatments as they may also be carried out and paid for privately or as I have indicated part of the HSE's parallel dental scheme. The Government has no specific plans to assist young dentists in debt.

The decisions financial institutions operating in Ireland make on an application for credit or restructuring of existing credit arrangements is a commercial decision for the institution concerned. The Department of Finance has no direct function in relation to individual's decisions on these matters. A general debt forgiveness scheme would have costs not only for the bank, but also for the Government. Banks would require further capital support which in turn would be passed on to the tax payer. A debt forgiveness policy raises its own issues such as "fairness" and "moral hazard" for those who are managing to make their repayments.