The children of the Offaly’s primary school ‘will be in the transition year’ before accessing dental care

The deputy of Offaly TD, Carol Nolan, raised the matter in the Dáil with the minister after the parents contacted her in the constituency that is increasingly concerned about the level of delays within the dental detection service of the school.

Several parents have indicated that they have children who should have been seen in the sixth class but are still waiting for an appointment even though they are now in the transition year.

Minister Macneill replied thanking Deputy Nolan for highlighting this important issue, before saying that the State is struggling to obtain a sufficient number of dentists, both on the public side and in general, to meet the level of demand for development controls.

“I have been highlighting the chronic levels of offfaly service deficit for several years and I have repeatedly brought solutions to ministers who ask them to take action,” said Deputy Nolan.

“I accept what the minister says in terms of the number of new dental training programs, especially the specific training program with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland at the Connolly hospital, but the fact is that the root of this problem lies in the failure of governments to agree and implement a new scheme of dental treatment services (DTSS) to replace the existing scheme that is simply not appropriate for the purpose.

“We know, for example, that in 2014 there were 1,600 dentists who offered treatment to medical and school card holders. We quickly advance until last year and that number has been reduced to 810 dentists who appear as participants in the scheme, with only 600 of the assets.

“I have worked closely with the Irish dental association in this matter, and the clear sense now is that there seems to be no real political appetite to reform the DTSS contract despite the entire talk that happens in this regard. Under the current DTS scheme, dentists get around 50pc to 60 percent of what they would receive from a private rate.

“No dental surgery can operate on those margins for a long time and that is why we are seeing an exodus of the service that is actively damaging children and adults equally,” concluded Deputy Nolan.