Dental and Orthodontic Services: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-23
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David Cullinane (SF), Waterford

I thank all of the speakers for their contributions. It has to be said, among Government and Opposition Members, including the Ministers, there is a recognition that we have a real problem, and that children and adults, but particularly children, are waiting too long. The problem is that this is not the first debate we have had on this issue. It is not the first time that issues and problems with dental and orthodontic wait times have been raised in this Dáil.
I mentioned that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health had a number of sessions on this and published a report. I have been talking about this issue for the best part of ten years or more. I recall dealing with this issue when I was a member of Waterford City and County Council, many years ago. There is no part of the country about which it can be said a top class service is being provided but there are parts of the country where it is really bad, and the south east and Waterford is unfortunately one of the worst-performing. The Minister of State talked about the system relying on private contractors, and it is, but no public system should depend on private contractors. The problem is that we simply do not have enough dentists and orthodontists working in the public system. That is a reality. When the Government says it cannot hire or find them or get them into the public system, that is what workforce planning is about. The Government starts a plan and examines why something is the case, deals with those challenges, overcomes them and puts in place a strategy to enable us to train more dentists and orthodontists, recruit more and have them in the public system, but it is not happening, and because it is not happening, we are not treating children in schools or doing the screening. Children with disabilities are waiting too long for treatment and the vast majority of children waiting for braces or urgent care are waiting far too long.
It is simply not good enough. We have put forward solutions in this motion. This motion is not being opposed by Government but what I want to see is not just the Government not opposing it, but actually engaging with the solutions we have put on the table. Let us improve this service so that we are not here in a year or a number of years having the same circular debate with more children unfortunately waiting for care.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23