Commenting on the additional HSE budget funding of €1.5bn announced by Minister Donnelly, Fintan Hourihan, CEO of the Irish Dental Association said:

"The HSE should consider utilising the additional funds to expedite the recruitment of more dentists to the public dental service. As of January 2024, there are only 253 whole time equivalent (WTEs) dentists in the HSE public dental service, compared with 330 WTEs in 2006. We need to recruit a minimum of 76 dentists to bring employment levels in the HSE public dental service to that of 2006.

"Ireland's growing population has far outstripped recruitment into the public dental service and service provision is at crisis levels with over 100,000 children denied a dental screening under the schools dental screening scheme due to insufficient levels of dentists employed by the HSE. Similarly, public patients are facing significant delays in accessing dental care due to staffing shortages.

"We urge Minister Donnelly and HSE CEO, Bernard Gloster, to immediately implement a recruitment strategy which would improve the current employment levels in the public dental service and help reduce waiting lists among public patients. Irish dental patients are suffering the consequences of the wilful neglect of our public dental service which has seen a 23% decline in staffing levels versus a 20 to 50% increase in all other areas of our health service such as nursing, admin and doctor staffing levels."