Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I acknowledge that there are very significant difficulties and challenges with the dental treatment medical scheme and dental healthcare more generally in terms of the poor capacity in the public sector side of dental treatment.
The preponderance of people has been towards the private sector and the difficulty in terms of recruitment and establishing a comprehensive structure within the dental public health service has proven problematic for quite some time. There have been negotiations with the IDA and the Department of Health and there has been additional funding allocated. The Deputy is aware of the impact of that in County Offaly. I do not have the specifics of County Laois per se , but it seems to me, and I will speak to the Minister about this, that we need a more fundamental re-examination of how we provide dental services in the future in the most efficient and effective way that meets the needs of those who require such treatment, and what is the best mechanism for doing that. The existing approaches and more traditional approaches of the past have not borne fruit in terms of where dentists choose to operate or tend to do their practise and so on. That is a difficulty. I will ask the Minister to engage with the Deputy in respect of the situation in County Laois more specifically because he raised that.
Overall, dental health has improved fairly significantly. The public health side of dental health has been positive in terms of the basics people need to adhere to, but for those requiring treatment, many are waiting too long, particularly for orthodontics.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-19