Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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353. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to introduce a dental cleaning and payments towards glasses scheme in budget 2018; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16265/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The intention to re-introduce additional treatments and benefits as part of the treatment benefit (TB) scheme was announced in Budget 2017.

The first part of this commitment involves the extension of the existing TB scheme to cover some 450,000 self-employed people and their spouses for the first time. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that this extension is now in place with self-employed contributors, who meet the qualifying conditions, benefitting from the scheme with effect from 27 March 2017. This means that people who work for themselves and pay PRSI at class S can now get the same regular dental and optical examinations, free of charge, that until now were only available to employees. They can also get a grant for hearing aids of 50% of the cost, to a maximum of €500 per aid, every 4 years.

The re-introduction of treatments on the scheme is planned for October 2017. This will include the re-introduction of an annual scale and polish treatment on the dental scheme and the periodic provision of spectacles and associated optical services to all qualified PRSI contributors. The full details of the changes will be advertised closer to the implementation date.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.