Vol. 429 No. 1
63 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Social Welfare , in view of the recommendation of the Second Commission on the Status of Women that a publicity campaign to encourage eligible spouses of PRSI workers to avail of their entitlement to low cost dental treatment, the extent to which this information is currently available and also the basis on which this treatment could be availed of at the present time.
Under my Department's Treatment Benefit Scheme, qualified insured workers and their dependent spouses are entitled to a wide range of dental, optical and aural benefits either free of charge or at a reduced cost. In order to qualify for benefit, claimants must have sufficient PRSI contributions to satisfy the statutory conditions applicable in their case.
I was glad to have been able to extend the scheme to include the dependent spouses of qualified insured workers from October 1987. Initially, however, many spouses experienced difficulty in getting necessary dental treatment because of a dispute with the Irish Dental Association.
The dispute has now been resolved and all dentists on my Department's dental panel are providing treatment to all qualified persons. Some 300,000 dependent spouses can now avail of the dental treatment under the scheme simply by arranging an appointment with their dentist.
