Pat Carey
Ceist:460 Mr. Carey asked the Minister for Health and Children the reason 15-year old children are not entitled to anything other than emergency dental services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13084/02]
Written Answers. - Dental Services.
The provision of dental treatment to eligible persons is the statutory responsibility of the health boards in the first instance. All health boards have adopted a planned targeted approach to the delivery of dental services to national school children. This is to ensure the optimum use of dental resources and equal access for all national school children to the same level of dental care.
Children in specific classes in national school, usually second, fourth and sixth class, are targeted for preventive measures under the school based approach; the children in these classes are screened and referred for treatment as necessary. The programme has been specifically designed to ensure that children are dentally fit before they leave national school. The screening provided in second, fourth and sixth classes ensures that follow up appointments for examination, treatment or orthodontic review are made, as necessary, with the dental surgeon in the clinic designated for the particular school(s).
Under the Health Act, 1970 and the Health (Dental Services for Children) Regulations 2000, children who have attended national school retain eligibility for dental treatment up to their 16th birthday. In 2000, my Department provided additional funding of €3.935 million for this extension of eligibility for the children's dental services. Moreover, an additional €0.203 million and €0.867 million was provided to the Eastern Regional Health Authority in 2001 and 2002 respectively for the recruitment of extra dental teams to provide dental treatment to children up to their 16th birthday. It is anticipated that over the coming months staffing will be in place to provide treatment services to this age cohort.
In the meantime, treatment is provided within the resources available to the health boards and where resources are limited, an emergency dental service is provided by the health board pending recruitment of additional clinical staff.