Dental Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Pádraig Rice (SD), Cork South-Central

I thank the Minister. It is welcome that progress is being made because it is now seven years since the national oral health policy, Smile agus Sláinte, was published and we still do not have that implementation plan. I was not impressed by some of the excuses we received from officials at the committee, one of which was to blame Covid-19 for the failure to do this over the last number of years.
We have been here before. Previous Ministers have promised an implementation plan, but it was never delivered. I hope that the current Minister does so, with clear actions, targets and timelines.
Crucially, we need a new dental Act. The Dental Council is currently toothless. It needs powers to investigate, inspect and regulate. We have heard of cases of an unregistered person convicted of a sexual assault who may be practising as a dentist, as well as an unregistered dentist offering dental treatments, including X-rays, from a sitting room in an apartment in Dublin. We have also heard about three unregistered dentists offering pop-up clinics in Munster. We want to see a new dental Act and for the Dental Council to be given the real powers that it needs and has been calling for since 2008.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21