The Irish Dental Association (IDA) welcomes the contributions made during today’s - Wednesday 16th July - Dáil debate on dental services as introduced by Deputy Brian Stanley as a timely and necessary spotlight on long-standing failures in the public dental system — failures that are now severely impacting access to care, particularly for children and vulnerable groups.

The Association has consistently highlighted the urgent need for reform, investment and workforce planning across public dental services. A properly funded and resourced public dental system is vital to delivering timely, preventive, and equitable oral healthcare. Today, it is in a state of crisis.

We welcome the contribution of so many Deputies who highlighted powerful individual cases from across their constituencies in the struggles they and their children have faced in securing access to public dental services. This is an ongoing reality that the Association has heard from our members consistently in recent years.

It is deeply concerning that core services — including the school dental screening programme — are effectively non-functional in many parts of the country. Latest figures show that over 104,000 children are not receiving the oral health checks they are entitled to, a situation that is both unacceptable yet should be entirely avoidable.

Compounding the issue are broader training and staffing challenges. As the Dáil heard today, Ireland continues to operate with too few dental training places relative to population need. In the absence of adequate funding, our Dental Schools are having to rely on a disproportionate allocation to non-EU trainees, the majority of whom leave the country following the completion of their training.

Access pathways for fully qualified non-EU dentists and associated professions through the Critical Skills List remain excessively restrictive, depriving the system of much-needed talent that could be helping to reduce waiting lists and restore core services. We continue to call on the Minister and Department to urgently update the Critical Skills List to alleviate some of the pressure on our dental practices and support recruitment in the sector.

While today’s motion in the Oireachtas is a welcome step in highlighting the serious issues facing the dental sector, the time for action is now. 

The Government must move forward with immediate reforms and sustained investment in public dental care without delay, starting with the publication of the implementation plan for Smile agus Slainte, our national oral healthcare policy. Our members are committed to delivering high-quality care to all sectors of society — but they must be given the resources and policy support to do so.

We stand ready to work collaboratively and constructively with Government, the Department of Health, the HSE, and all stakeholders to ensure that any reform is meaningful, sustainable, and in the best interests of both patients and the profession.

We would like to thank all Deputies for their contributions today in highlighting the crisis in our oral healthcare services and the real-world manifestations of oral health policies which are no longer fit for purpose.