I raise the commitment in the programme for Government around the improvement of dental services. In Laois-Offaly, we are in crisis. The Minister is standing in for the Taoiseach today. I want to get this addressed. The public scheme is not functioning properly. Dentists are not interested, in the main. Dentists have stopped taking patients for the dental treatment services scheme, DTSS, full stop. Services cannot be gotten and people cannot access them. Those are the facts. The school scheme has also collapsed. In Laois, there are 16-year-old and 17-year-old children - teenagers - who have not yet seen a dentist in their lifetime. Those are the facts of it. The services in Laois-Offaly are in the dark ages. Services across CHO 8 are in severe difficulty. There is a budget and I am trying to find out how much it is. If the Minister could give me the figure, I would welcome it. I have been looking for it from the HSE. There is a budget and we have no service. Given that failure, will the Government now decide to train, recruit and employ public dentists-----

The Minister to respond.

-----through the HSE to provide a dental health service to the children and adults in Laois-Offaly?

We are over time.

I have raised this many times with the Taoiseach.

I know this is an important issue and it is one we are committed to addressing. It is undoubtedly the case that a significant number of contracted dentists have chosen to opt out of the dental treatment scheme. It has caused many problems and delays for medical card patients around the country.

It has collapsed.

The Minister for Health has approved new measures to provide for both expanded dental healthcare for medical card holders in the dental treatment scheme and increased fees for dental contractors. Those came into effect on 1 May. In addition, further funding has been provided in the recent budget to assist the HSE in providing care to adult medical card holders who meet the HSE criteria for emergency care.