Dental Services
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25
============================================================

Mary Butler (FF), Waterford

There is nothing the Senator is saying that I disagree with. The Government invests annually in oral healthcare with a figure of €240 million this year alone. Over €20 million has been allocated to waiting list initiatives for contracted orthodontic care, resulting in more than 5,200 removals from waiting lists since 2020. This includes a dedicated orthodontic surgery programme that has delivered treatment for an additional 206 patients to date. This funding will continue in 2026 with a further €2.85 million being provided.
I understand exactly where the Senator is coming from. It was part of primary school for all of us to get oral hygiene care. I appreciate that for some families it might be a step too far if they have an issue. However, children will be looked after if they have an emergency. The Senator's point is well made that we should not allow them to get to the point of emergencies. The Minister for Health has a meeting this week on dentists. I saw it in her diary. She is putting a focus on this at the moment to see if we can get some sort of solution to provide more care to those that need it sooner than we are doing at the moment.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25