I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity. The oral health of many thousands of people in the State is under threat because medical cards are not accepted by many of those working in the dental profession. This is not an attack or a slight on our great dentists, who provide an invaluable service, not least in County Kerry. It is the exact opposite: it is to support them. Quite simply, dentists are finding it extremely difficult to run their businesses because of ever-increasing costs on them and because the money that being reimbursed to them by the HSE is not adequate when it comes to dealing with services for medical card holders. A medical card holder is every bit as entitled to receive a proper service as a person who has private health insurance or has enough money in his or her pocket to pay for taking care of his or her teeth.

I thank the Deputy.

This is very important. I am inundated on this matter. This is not just a Kerry problem, it is a problem throughout the country.

The dental treatment services scheme, DTSS, was cut back significantly during the financial crisis and has not been restored. While we have agreed a restoration schedule for funding for general practice, we have not done so for dental practice. We will need to do that. It is a matter for the budget and the HSE service plan. I understand and share the Deputy’s sentiments. In the context of the health budget, it is not an enormous amount of money, so I hope we can get the matter resolved in the next couple months.