Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 July 2025
368. Deputy Malcolm Byrne asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the Programme for Government commitment to hire more public dentists and to indicate the number of public dentists currently employed by the State. [36860/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government is committed to hiring more public dentists, and funding was allocated in Budget 2025 to support the recruitment of 15 additional oral healthcare WTEs in the HSE. This investment is providing an additional 15 HSE dental staff across dentists and dental nurses to deliver oral healthcare in the community, including the primary school oral health examination programme for children. Further, the HSE has sanctioned filling 34.7 existing WTE vacancies in the Oral Healthcare Service and have advised that the recruitment process has commenced.
There are currently 289 WTE dentists in the HSE's Oral Healthcare Service, across the various grades of dentist.
There are now more dentists than ever registered in Ireland - with 3,888 dentists on the Dental Council register as of June 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 25%.
This Government is firmly committed to ensuring that our healthcare system is supported by a steady and sustainable pipeline of highly skilled graduates —including in critical areas such as oral healthcare and dentistry. Ensuring adequate capacity to train future dentists is part of our broader commitment to workforce planning that supports the health and wellbeing of our population.
