Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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705. To ask the Minister for Health further to his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 646 of 16 June 2015, if he will clarify if the 272 whole-time equivalent dentists referenced by him, are the staffing contingent of the public dental service; if the 184 dentists referenced by him are included amongst the 272 whole-time equivalent number; if he will confirm whether the Health Service Executive is now directly employing 41 fewer whole-time equivalent dentists than it was at the end of March 2015, the period with respect to which the executive provided a figure of 313 whole-time equivalent dentists in response to Parliamentary Question No.648 of 24 March 2015. [29215/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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In December 2014 the number of dentists working in the Public Dental Service was 272. The HSE has clarified that the figure of 184 is no longer relevant and was provided in error. It is a figure from a legacy database set up in the 1990's when HSE dentists were given a Dental Treatment Services Scheme number under a governance initiative.

The March 2015 data provided by the HSE comes from the Health Service Personnel Census (HSPC). The figure of 313 WTE's from the HSPC includes 40 specialist orthodontists. The equivalent comparable figure for December 2014 was 312 WTE's.