asked the Minister for Social Welfare the total amount saved by his Department in unpaid dental benefits from the beginning of the dental strike to date.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unpaid Dental Benefits.
16.
It is not possible to give any precise indication of the amount saved in unpaid dental benefits as a result of the withdrawal of a majority of dentists from the dental benefit scheme administered by my Department, but it can be said that it was not substantial.
Because considerable advance publicity had been given to the intention of dentists to withdraw from the dental benefit scheme, many thousands of persons anticipated the withdrawal and lodged claims for benefit before the strike began. Treatment under all these claims was carried out during the period of the strike as well as treatment under claims which continued to be received through the substantial number of dentists who remained on the dental panel. It is expected, moreover, that many insured persons requiring non-urgent treatment will have deferred making a claim until the end of the strike. This backlog of claims will now have to be dealt with in addition to the normal intake of claims for this period of the year.
So far as my Department can ascertain only some 1,000 insured persons were unable to obtain under the scheme dental treatment urgently needed, e.g. extractions and fillings, during the period of the strike and were obliged to pay for it as private patients. The amount saved to the Department as a result would not, it is estimated, exceed £2,500.