Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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303. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to extend the treatment benefit scheme; if he has conducted an analysis of the cost of extending the treatments available under this scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25882/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As outlined in the Programme for Government and announced in Budget 2017, I have extended eligibility to the treatment benefit scheme, to include the self-employed, who were not previously covered.

From 27 March, self-employed contributors with sufficient PRSI contributions at class S, or class S combined with other previously reckonable classes of PRSI, are entitled to a range of treatment benefits. Currently, this covers a free annual dental exam, a free optical exam once every two years and a grant of up to €500 or 50% towards the cost of a hearing aid. The treatments available under the optical and dental schemes will be extended from October 2017, to include the previously available provision of glasses, as required every two years and a once yearly dental scale and polish or periodontal cleaning.

It is estimated that some 450,000 self-employed contributors including their dependant spouses will be eligible for treatment benefit for the first time as a result of this change.

Almost 500,000 treatment benefit claims were received in 2016 and it is anticipated that there will be a significant increase in demand when the benefits available under the scheme are extended from October this year. The increased cost is estimated at €51.5 million in a full year. Financial provision for this anticipated increase in demand has been made in the estimates budget for this and coming years.

Any further extension to the benefits available under the treatment benefit scheme would have to considered in a budgetary context.