Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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787. To ask the Minister for Health to confirm the number of registered dentists in the Cork East constituency. [35694/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Dental Council is responsible for the registration of dentists in Ireland, which is the regulatory body for dentists in Ireland. The Dentists Act 1985 established the Dental Council which provides for the registration and control of persons engaged in the practice of dentistry.

According to the Dental Council there are now 3,888 dentists on the register as of June 2025. This is an increase of 236 since April 2024 and is the highest number ever recorded. This reflects ongoing upward trends regarding registered dentists in the State, and compares favourably with the numbers in April 2019, when Smile agus Sláinte was published – 3,100, an increase of over 25%.

Currently, the Dental Council does not collect information on where dentists practice in Ireland. In order to address this my Department has recently conducted a scoping exercise to support a skills assessment workforce census across the oral healthcare sector. The intention of the workforce census is to collect information such as the location of dentists' practice and whether they are currently practising. This will enable more accurate and reliable data to be collected which will help inform workforce planning for the future.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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788. To ask the Minister for Health the number of dental practices that are currently accepting new medical card patients in the Cork East constituency as of now, and at this same point in 2022, 2023 and 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35695/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly.