Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 11 Oct 1994

Vol. 445 No. 6

Written Answers. - National Dental Health Plan.

Eric J. Byrne

Question:

439 Mr. E. Byrne asked the Minister for Health the progress, that has been made on the implementation of the National Dental Health Plan; and if he will give a regional breakdown of the dental service investments made since the Government took office. [650/94]

Minister for Health (Mr. Howlin)

The Dental Health Action Plan provides for the setting of oral health goals and the improvement of oral health promotion and preventive programmes including substantial capital investment in the national fluoridation programme; a significant enhancement of the public dental services through a more clearly defined role for health board dentists concentrating to a large extent on oral health care and services for children. There will be a significant increase in manpower; the extension of eligibility to children under 16 years of age; the improvement of secondary care orthodontic services through the recruitment of additional consultant orthodontists and support staff; the expansion of hospital based oral surgery services through the appointment of additional consultant oral surgeons and support staff; the introduction of new arrangements for the provision of adult dental services with the participation of private dental practitioners. Health board dentists will be entitled to participate in these arrangements. The provision of services for adults will be phased in on the basis of age cohorts commencing with the over 65s; a programme commencing shortly to provide full dentures to medical card holders over 65 who require them; an emergency service will be available to all medical card holders on demand and a new Dublin dental hospital and school.

Considerable progress has been made in implementing the 1994 phase of the action plan as follows: legislation to enable me to extend eligibility to children under 16 is now in place. I propose to extend eligibility to those under 14 years of age later this year; in excess of £1.5 million has been provided to health boards for the development of children's dental services; £1 million has been provided to health boards for the development of orthodontic services; funding has now been provided to the Mid-Western and the Western Health Boards to establish consultant oral surgery services in their regions.

Following complex negotiations between my Department and the dental profession on the proposed new dental scheme for eligible adults both sides have accepted the scheme. Under the proposed new dental scheme for eligible adults the services to be provided will include routine items of treatment plus an emergency service and the provision of dentures for the elderly. In the initial phasing the over 65s have been identified as the first priority group. Private dental practitioners under contract to the health boards will be major providers of services.

At the outset emergency treatment will be available to all adults while routine treatment will be phased-in for the identifiable priority groups within the eligible populations over the period of the plan. The scheme will be introduced from 1 November 1994. Additional funding will be provided to health boards to enable them to introduce the scheme.

The Government has provided the following additional funds to health boards for the development of dental services since 1993. These funds are additional to the moneys spent by health boards on providing dental services from my Department's annual allocation to health boards.

Health Board	1993 and 1994 Additional Monies Dental Services
	£
Eastern	620,000
Midland	184,000
Mid-Western	411,000
North-Eastern	401,000
North-Western	803,000
South-Eastern	895,000
Southern	601,000
Western	854,000

Discussion with the boards is continuing in relation to their further resource requirements for 1994 which will be finalised shortly.