Dental Services

96. Deputy Joe Neville asked the Minister for Health if she is aware of the major backlog in the school dental screening service in Kildare; and if her Department will consider screening children earlier to ensure children are screened before leaving primary school. [72906/26]

I thank the Deputy. I am indeed aware of the challenge not just in Kildare but around the country with public dental services. In particular, for school-aged children routine screening has been delayed, meaning some children do not receive an assessment until they have entered secondary school, which is simply unacceptable. While the HSE will follow up to ensure those children are seen, it is not good enough because they need to be seen earlier. Improving access requires a multifaceted approach with short-term interventions and meaningful strategic reform. My Department and I have finalised a very focused two-year action plan to deliver real improvements on the ground. We will be publishing that within the coming weeks. That plan is in response to the many concerns Deputies have raised about dental services for school-aged children, children with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, and children who need sedation for surgery. This is an effort to try to respond to that in a focused way over two years. The plan will focus on a number of clear priorities: tackling waiting lists in the school dental programme and for orthodontics; improvement and expansion of the access programme to oral healthcare for people who have additional needs including those with disabilities; commencing a review of the dental treatment services scheme; supporting recruitment, education and training; and supporting innovation and new ways of delivering care, which is really very possible. Over the next two years the aim is to stabilise services, reduce waiting times and make access measurably better for patients while laying the groundwork for longer term reform. It will be driven by a dedicated governance group with progress monitored closely by the Department and aligned to wider Department and HSE priorities. This is a real priority for the Government and for me. To that end, I have ensured we have €18 million in new investment in budget 2027 to implement this two-year oral health action plan. The immediate focus will be to address backlogs in the school screening programme for all areas, including Kildare.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. It is great she and her team and the HSE are so conscious of this. We hear from people that pupils in second class are not getting the screening even though they should. In fourth class they struggle to get it and it is the same in sixth class. So often they have passed first year and are at a point where they have to get the work done before they are 16. Often, by the time they are assessed and checked, they are almost too late and they feel they have to do it privately at the ages of 13 or 14. I am suggesting we bring the sixth class screening back to fifth class. The argument might be made that mouths are not fully developed but we need to have a situation where we can monitor at what stage people are checked. I love the plan as the Minister laid it out but I would like to see a breakdown by region so we can see, in the case of my constituency of Kildare North, where people are getting seen and what the throughput is in those locations.

I have no difficultly getting the Deputy that kind of data and I will clarify with him what exactly is the most helpful. In the longer term plan, I will certainly raise the question about the point at which the service is delivered. My current priority is ensuring the children whose dental examinations have been carried over and not delivered get those examinations. Some 51,000 sixth-class children's dental examinations have been carried over in that way and they are the priority. The two-year oral health action plan is designed to deliver tangible improvements to ensure this does not happen again but most important is supporting the children who have been waiting the longest, especially those who have been waiting for orthodontic treatment that has not happened. There has not been the correct priority for surgical theatres for dentistry, including community dentistry, in particular for children with disabilities who need certain orthodontic care, which is extremely important.

I am glad we discussed it because dental care is probably not something that gets the headlines it deserves but it can be a good indicator of a lot of other issues. It is important children get to see the benefits of it. It also allows parents to catch issues at an early age that might lead to problems down the line. It is incumbent on us all to deliver simple steps we want to set out for our public. I reiterate that because children are not getting the screenings in time issues are not captured and there is a risk of their having to go private. All of us here know dental costs can be significant. If we could defray those costs for members of the public, we should do so. Any measures the Minister's team is working on to do that should be welcomed. We should focus then on the results.

The Deputy is right. We want children to get whatever they need as soon as they can. The HSE provides free orthodontic treatment at the point of care to those with the greatest level of need who have been assessed and referred before their 16th birthday. They have to have the appropriate assessments at the earliest stage. That is not to say nothing has happened. In 2025, over 155,000 assessments were carried out in the public dental service, of which 107,000 were in targeted programmes in schools. There is activity. It is just not necessarily enough and there are people who are not getting access. Another 48,000 attended for emergencies and nearly 68,000 new oral health patients in target groups had attended for scheduled assessment as of July 2026. That was a 16.3% increase on last year. The number of people getting assessments is growing. My concern is there is also a growing backlog. That is not okay and it is time-sensitive. Particularly in orthodontic care for children with disabilities, we cannot allow that. That is the purpose of the two-year plan.