I have no information on the number of private dental practices which have ceased business this year. Private dental practitioners provide dental treatment under contract through the Dental Treatment Services scheme (DTSS) operated by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the Dental Treatment Benefit Scheme (DTBS), which is the responsibility of the Minster for Social Protection. In 2009 there was a net increase of 233 dentists contracted to provide services under the DTSS and a net increase of 116 dentists contracted to provide services under the DTBS. During the period January to September 2010 an additional 104 dentists were contracted to provide services under the DTSS and 26 dentists terminated their contracts. In the DTBS an additional 91 dentists have been contracted to provide services this year and 93 have terminated their contracts.
The Government's decision to limit the funding available to the DTSS was made in view of the current position of the public finances and the 60% increase in expenditure in the DTSS over the past five years. While the HSE has introduced measures to contain DTSS expenditure at the 2008 level of approximately €63 million it is projected that expenditure on the DTSS will reach €79 million by the end of the year. There are no plans to reverse these measures.
Changes were also made to the DTBS, which is the responsibility of the Minister for Social Protection, to save money as the Social Insurance Fund, which funds the scheme, was running a deficit for the first time in a number of years. It is expected that dentists will receive payments of €105 million (DTSS: €79m; DTBS €26m) this year from the two schemes. It should be noted that the income derived from state schemes does not represent the total income received by dentists, as many have private practices.