I asked a parliamentary question in June about the number of dentists accepting medical cards. The answer I received was that just one dentist in Laois is accepting cards. This is one public dentist for a county with a population of 90,000 people. In Kildare eight dentists have left the scheme over the past year with just 28 submitting claims in May. I am inundated with people looking for dentists. No list is available. People are blue in the face from ringing all over the county and often outside of Kildare. When will the Government address the crisis that is public dentistry and act to prevent irreparable and painful damage that will be much more expensive to fix?

It is an issue. We are very aware that more and more dentists have pulled out of the scheme. We want to encourage them back. We have put in a considerable amount of additional money this year including higher fees. This money is in for next year also. The current approach is not working for too many people in the country. We need to hire and retain more dentists in the public and private systems. We have allocated significant funding for dental programmes for those aged from zero to seven years from next year. There is also money for catch-up programmes for children waiting for orthodontics. While these are important they are not enough. I have committed to the Department meeting the Irish Dental Association to speak about much more fundamental reform to make sure people who have medical cards get the access they quite rightly deserve and need. Far too often at the moment they do not have it.