I raise the issue, once again, of dental care for children of schoolgoing age in the mid-west. I asked two weeks ago if we could have the Minister for Health in for a debate on healthcare in general but there are a number of issues specific to Limerick that I would like to raise with her. It has come to my attention that Limerick children are now leaving primary school without ever receiving dental screening. The legislation provides that primary school children are supposed to be offered free dental check-ups in second, fourth and sixth classes. The screenings are incredibly important because they help identify issues early and support better long-term dental health but in Limerick, there were more than 8,500 children due to receive school dental screenings in second, fourth and sixth classes in 2023 and only approximately 1,600 were actually seen. That means fewer than one in five eligible children received the check-up.

Government policy is clear; they should be getting their screenings, so I call on the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill and the Department of Health to address this regional disparity and work with the HSE mid-west to address the capacity, recruitment and retention issues that it faces. Furthermore, I call on the Minister to engage with her colleague the Tánaiste to develop dental credits for families in the upcoming budget, recognising that the cost of private dental visits is an unseen cost-of-living burden being unfairly levied on the majority of parents in Limerick. I urge the Minister to work with the Tánaiste to develop this dental tax credit for working families in the upcoming budget.