Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 April 2026
171. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health the improvements that have been made to provide additional dentists in County Laois, operating the dental treatment services scheme and the treatment benefit scheme respectively; the steps being taken in terms of recruitment and the availability of dentists for those two schemes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28403/26]
View answerIt is heartening to note that there are 3,909 dentists on the Dental Council register as of 16th of April 2026 which is an increase of 86 since this time last year, April 2025. This reflects ongoing upward trends regarding registered dentists in the State, and compares favourably with the numbers in April 2019, when Smile agus Sláinte was published – 3,100, an increase of over 26%. However, it is unknown how that figure translates into capacity in terms of dental appointments and the ranges of treatments available.
Discussions are currently ongoing with the Dental Council with a view to reforming the current Register for Dentists. In order to support this, a workforce skills assessment census framework for the oral healthcare sector has been designed. The workforce census is intended to gather information including the number of registered oral healthcare professionals who are practicing in their registered profession, the location of their practice, services they provide, hours worked and the skills they have.
There are currently 232 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) dentists in the HSE's Oral Healthcare Service, across the various grades of dentist. Specifically, in the HSE Dublin and Midlands region which includes Laois there are currently 33 WTE dentists across the various dental grades.
Funding of €4m has been invested by the Government to support the addition of 15 HSE dental staff across dentists and dental nurses to deliver oral healthcare in the community. Of these 15 posts, 8 have been on boarded/recruitment complete, 6 have campaigns underway, and 1 post has been approved. Specifically, in the HSE Dublin and Midlands region which includes Laois currently 1 position has been recruited with 2 campaigns underway.
Further, the HSE has sanctioned filling 34.7 existing WTE vacancies in the Oral Healthcare Service and have advised that the recruitment has commenced. My Department is supportive of the recruitment of 49.7 WTE identified through these two processes, which will improve the staffing levels currently available to provide service including the former Community Health Organisation (CHO) 8 which includes Laois.
In terms of the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS), a package of measures was introduced in 2022 to expand the care available under the Scheme and significantly increase the fees paid to contractors. These measures are having an impact, with access to care continuing to increase each year since they were introduced. In 2025, over 241,000 additional treatments were provided under the DTSS supporting over 50,000 extra patients compared with 2022.
Fees paid to dentists for DTSS care are now aligned with other European countries which provide comparable public dental care, noting that many European countries, especially in the southern and eastern regions, don’t have any scheme in place for adults, which is free at point of access.
I acknowledge that the current public dental service, 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.
Reform of our services is vital to enable people of all ages to access modern, prevention-focused care. The National Oral Health Policy contains a range of strategic workforce planning actions to increase national workforce capacity, in support of improving patient access to care.
