Ten takeaways from the July 16th Dail debate on dentistry
Ten takeaways from the July 16th Dail debate on dentistry
- The motion proposed by independent Deputy Brian Stanley (Laois) covered a wide range of concerns relating to the provision of dental care, especially to children and adults entitled to care under the medical card and PRSI dental schemes. His motion and the contributions in the debate showed that TDs are being contacted by constituents on dental matters consistently. In fact, Deputy Barry Heneghan, said that during the recent election campaign the stress felt by voters due to their children being unable to access dental care was one of the grievances he heard most on the doorsteps.
- In total twenty-two TDs from across the Opposition benches contributed to the debate with responses provided by junior Ministers at the Department of Health, deputies Mary Butler and Kieran O’Donnell. No contributions were made by any TDs supporting the Government other than the two junior Ministers and in fact no Government backbenchers attended the debate.
- There is strong support for prioritising greater access to dental care for children especially and the Opposition is keen to see progress with the plans for a new state scheme which is being promised by the Government. The Irish Dental Association also welcomes the fact that children’s dental health is to be given priority and hopefully that funding will be provided to enable greater access to dental care. Where we differ with the Department of Health is how this can be delivered but we will be happy to get around a table with the Department to see how we can all see better access to dental care for children enabled.
- The decision announced by Minister Mary Butler that the Government would not be opposing the motion was remarkable and mirrored the stance taken by the previous Government in the debate on a motion on dentistry moved by Deputy Roisin Shortall in May 2024. The fact that no Government TDs attended the debate yesterday was another indication of a tacit admission of defeat regarding dental health by this Government.
- Minister Butler announced that a final draft of the new Smile agus Slaintecare three-year implementation plan is with the HSE for observations and suggested that one their views are received publication will be expedited. The plan will provide a multi-annual framework for policy implementation and will help to inform the necessary “budgetary considerations.”
- All politics is local, and Deputy Brian Stanley (Laois) explained that his interest in the dental access crisis is informed as much by difficulties family members have encountered but also by the fact of the particular and severe difficulties faced by his constituents. Children in Laois do not receive a school screening appointment until fourth year in secondary school – the longest delays in the country and truly shocking when you consider the Department of Health’s action plan from 1994 envisages that children should receive three dental appointments over the course of their primary school education. He also instanced the huge difficulties for medical card patients accessing care in Laois where the collapse in the DTSS is as severe as in any part of the country.
- The advocacy work of the Irish Dental Association was obvious in much of the contributions from all TDs but there were also specific references to IDA research and commentary by Deputies Brian Stanley, Charles Ward (Donegal, Sinn Fein), Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, People before Profit), Cathy Bennett (Monaghan, Sinn Fein), Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats) Rory Hearne (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) and Barry Heneghan (Dublin North East, independent).
- Dentistry is political and it was obvious that many politicians see that it is one area of healthcare where health status is directly linked to socio-economic status. Dentistry is very much a private practice profession with almost 80% of expenditure accounted for by out-of-pocket spending. Interestingly the solutions bring proposed were almost uniformly to increase public provision of dental care rather than assisting patients meet the cost of privately delivered dental care. It was notable too how many TDs said that they had been approached by dentists as well as patients and families. Just shows that dentists can play their part in supplementing the advocacy work of the Association at a national level!!
- Not surprisingly, the Government representatives focussed very much on the welcome opening of the new RCSI dental school as an important part of the solution to dealing with the dental workforce crisis even though no dentists will graduate from the new school until 2030. It was notable also that TDs see that the near 50:50 divide between students who access the dental schools in Cork and Dublin through the CAO system and those who arrive from overseas is also seeing a net reduction in the numbers of dentists we are producing who are likely to practice in Ireland at a time when our population is on the rise (up 50% since 1980!!). The IDA has of course proposed that there should be a 20% cap put on the number of place open to overseas students with a commensurate increase in funding of our dental schools to compensate for lost revenue as a short-term measure to increase the supply of dentists willing to practice in Ireland.
- Soundbite of the day went to Deputy Ruth Coppinger who asked the Minister “why are teeth a luxury item in Ireland? Why are they considered an accessory?”