The Irish Dental Association (IDA) has welcomed the publication of the report of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health, examining dental services in Ireland.

Today must mark the end of the decades long neglect of oral health and the start of a new commitment on the part of Government to make investment in oral health and reform of archaic schemes and legislation a top priority.

In January of this year, the IDA attended a hearing of the Health Committee, where cross-party Committee members heard from dental representatives of the collapse and decline of public dental services, long-term workforce constraints and the lack of training places for prospective dentists across Ireland.

We were pleased to engage actively with all members of the Committee and welcome the level of interest, detail and insight demonstrated in this report. It is clear that there is an urgent need for meaningful reform in dental services, in line with the foundational principles of the Sláintecare programme.

As we approach the publication of the long-awaited National Oral Health Policy Implementation Plan, this report supports our view that significant investment is required to achieve meaningful reforms which offer sufficient access, coverage and quality of care to the general population, particularly those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. Hundreds of thousands of patients cannot afford further delays to comprehensive oral healthcare reforms.

The Irish Dental Association has put forward a detailed, solutions-oriented policy platform in recent years, with seven major policy papers proposing reforms across public and private practice.

Any successful programme of reforms must happen in partnership with dentists and their representatives, to ensure that we can improve access to dental care and to deliver viable and sustainable services across the country.

We have engaged substantively with the Minister for Health in recent months and welcome her visible interest in dental issues. We look forward to escalating our constructive engagement with the Department of Health and HSE.