I acknowledge that there are challenges in the current provision of dental services, including for children, and patients are waiting longer than they should have to, to access care. Additional investment in recent years has sought to protect access to the current model of service while also supporting fundamental service reform through implementation of the National Oral Health Policy.
€17m in one-off funding was invested between 2022 and 2024 to support access to children’s orthodontic treatment. This funding has seen the creation of a new initiative supporting access to jaw surgery for orthodontic patients and the transfer of over 5000 patients into private, community-based orthodontic treatment. A further €2.85m was invested in 2025 to continue these successful orthodontic treatment waiting list initiatives and enable children to access orthodontic care.
In 2025, an additional €2m in funding supported continued policy implementation and the hiring of 15 HSE oral healthcare staff to improve access to existing community services in our HSE dental and orthodontic clinics. This is increasing to €4m this year.
I acknowledge that the current system, which was developed in the 1990s in response to the identified oral healthcare needs at that time, needs to be modernised and aligned with current needs. I am committed to reforming oral healthcare services through the implementation of the National Oral Health Policy, Smile agus Sláinte. The National Oral Health Policy sets out the vision for oral healthcare services in Ireland and has two key goals:
• to provide the supports to enable every individual to achieve their personal best oral health.
• to reduce oral health inequalities across the population, by enabling vulnerable groups to access oral healthcare and improve their oral health.
Oral healthcare will reflect how primary care services are provided in general medical practice and pharmacies, i.e. all ages will be able to access health promotion, routine and emergency healthcare, and health evaluation, on demand, through a chosen local “dental home".
Reform of our services is vital to enable people of all ages to access modern, prevention-focused care. A plan for the first phase of implementation is currently at an advanced stage, for publication in the coming months and contains reform of primary care services for adults and children as priorities.
The development and roll-out of these packages will take place incrementally over the next number of years. The detail of the packages and the resource requirements will be agreed as part of the policy implementation process.
The Policy also contains a range of strategic workforce planning actions to increase national workforce capacity, in support of improving patient access to care. The Department of Health has finalised a workforce census framework for oral healthcare which will be integrated with the Dental Council registration system. The census will consist of a number of questions that dentists will be asked to complete. This will be the first action in developing a systematic approach to gathering data to inform workforce planning
The Department of Health (in consultation with the Department of Education and other stakeholders) is working to develop a proposal for the use of mobile dental clinics, or similar models, to provide preventative oral healthcare interventions to vulnerable children. This year we aim to commence a proof-of-concept mobile dental clinic for children, one of the aims of which will be to thoroughly evaluate direct access to preventive elements of the scope of practice of dental hygienists thus safely expanding access to preventative care.
A programme to encourage the redistribution of oral healthcare professionals to underserved areas is also a key action in the Policy. For oral healthcare professionals working in isolated rural areas far away from centres of education, it will be essential to provide support in the form of mentoring programmes as well as by introducing long-distance and accessible continuing development education programmes.
