188 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health the additional funds, if any, which have been made available to the Southern Health Board in the last six months to address the waiting lists for dental and orthodontic dental treatment.

For the past few years my Department have made a special additional allocation available to the Southern Health Board specifically for the development of dental services for adult medical card holders and their dependants and the provision of specialist orthodontic treatments. The special additional allocation provided in 1991 for this purpose was £492,000. The Southern Health Board's original allocation for 1992 includes a repeat of this special provision for the continuing development of the adult dental services and the orthodontics services.