Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 15 May 2019
DENTISTS HAVE SLAMMED the government’s new oral health policy stating that key aspects of the public dental service are now to be privatised.
Last month, Health Minister Simon Harris announced the new scheme of dental care for Irish children under the age of six, as well as packages of care for children from birth to 16 years of age.
Professor Leo Stassen of the Irish Dental Association criticised the policy stating that prevention takes time to work.
“The package is going to detract from the capability to look after children,” he said.
He added that it will result in an “increased need in extraction not just for children but for adults”.
Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Association told the Oireachtas Health Committee today, that not only will the new policy fail, but it will be “catastrophic for patients in lower socio-economic areas with high treatment needs”.
The association, which represents 2,000 dentists nationwide, said it was not consulted on the new oral health policy, despite being the practitioners that will have to roll it out.
The new policy for the care and treatment of children and adults is “seriously flawed, economically unviable and operationally unworkable”, said the chief executive.
Under the changes, contracted local dental practices will replace the existing Public Dental Service (PDS) school programme.
Currently, the PDS provides emergency treatment to all children under 16 years of age and routine dental examinations for school children at certain periods.
Children are examined and given a grade depending on how quickly the child needs treatment. The child is then referred to a local HSE dental clinic to receive treatment.
Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly said she was very concerned to hear that the professionals who will be tasked with rolling out the new scheme were not consulted when drafting the policy document.
She said it was very rare for the committee to receive a submission from a group that used such “stark language” against a new government policy.
Dentists not consulted on new plan
Hourihan told the committee today that it is “incomprehensible to our members in both the HSE public dental service and private practice that key aspects of the public dental service are now to be privatised”.
He said in his opening statement to the committee that the association’s members are concerned moving from a targeted, risk based model to a demand led model will pose risks in relation to the continuity of care and the provision of emergency care for children.
He added that dentists “fear that the public dental service will ultimately prove to be a dumping ground when the unworkable model proposed, which our members believe is based on a failed and discredited NHS experiment, inevitably collapses”.
Public service dentists employed by the HSE play a critical, complementary role in providing expert care primarily for children and special care children
and adults, he said.
“Regrettably, based on our members’ analysis of the plan, it seems certain that oral health inequalities will increase rather than reduce with the plan’s proposals in regard to the provision of dental care and treatment,” added Hourihan.
He said that this is “the inevitable consequence of moving from a targeted approach where HSE public dental surgeons directly target children at key age ranges of their development for dental services including, but not limited to, prevention, restorative care and referral to secondary services where eligible”.
This approach enables those who do not attend to be identified and followed up.
The policy’s proposal is to redirect this service into general practice where identifying risk will be dependent on attendance by the very groups who are both least likely to attend but also have the worst oral health and the greatest treatment need.However, the policy’s focus on prevention needs to be counter-balanced by the fact that prevention going forward cannot fix the significant amount of untreated oral diseases that are already present today.
Hourihan said dentists have long been calling for the replacement of the “unfit for purpose” medical card scheme, but the declaration from the Department of Health over
the years is that this couldn’t happen until the publication of a new oral
health policy.
“This has been used as an excuse also for the delayed publication of new legislation to update and amend the Dentists Act of 1985.
“The publication of the oral health policy now clears the pitch and allows all parties to engage without delay in long overdue discussions on the state contracts and also the need for new legislation,” he said.
While the association said they welcomed that the department has decided to move on rolling out an oral health policy, he questioned why dentists were not consulted.
Hourihan said the association has a “track record in speaking out” adding that “if that is why we are being punished, that is the only reason I can offer”.
Moving towards privatisation
Highlighting the “most glaring weakness” in the policy is the proposal to extend limited “free dental care” to under 6s and eventually to under-16s.
“However, the plan offers no evidence to justify taking care and treatment of children from the HSE public dental service,” he said, adding:
It may seem easy to suggest taking work from the HSE public dental service when it has been hollowed out and left to crumble over the past decade.
The association also notes there is no mention made to the current crisis in arranging dental care for children who require to be treated under general anaesthetic. Hourihan states up to 10,000 children a year are undergoing painful operations because routine screenings are no longer taking place and issues are not being identified in time.
In addition, the new government policy offers nothing to the 60% of adults who do not have access to free or subsidised dental care other than very limited PRSI dental benefits, he adds, and questions why there no support or funding towards the cost of dental treatment provided to those adults.
No change in tax relief
Hourihan also questions why there is no change in the tax relief for those adults, adding that the provisions for adults represents “little more than repackaging of the existing suite of treatments which were savagely cut in 2009, a decision which everyone described as shameful at the time”.
Currently, there is 20% tax relief only for a limited number of dental procedures.
Hourihan added that dentists first reaction to news of the new scheme was “disbelief and anger” at how few dentists in practice – within general practice, specialist practice or within the HSE – were consulted in the preparation of this new policy even though they are the ones it is hoped will deliver 95% of dental care in future.
“Therefore, we respectfully submit that this is not the last word on oral health in Ireland.
The association regards this as a starting point for a badly needed discussion on oral health,” he stated.
Responding to the criticism, the Department of Health said in a statement to TheJournal.ie that “this is a transformative oral health policy which requires a programme of change over eight years. The policy will be implemented in phases to give time for people and the profession to adjust and become familiar with the new system of care”.
“In the first years the focus will be on engaging with the relevant stakeholders, including dentists, to agree on how the new arrangements will be rolled out. The introduction of packages of care for children under six years of age will be prioritised.
“In addition, there will be a focus on enabling vulnerable adults to access their local dentist as a first point of contact and ensuring that they are referred to the HSE community oral healthcare service or other appropriate service, if required,” added the department.
In correspondence to the minister and the department since its launch, the Irish Dental Association welcomed the new policy, said the statement, adding that it invited a written submission from the Irish Dental Union/Association in December 2017.
“In response the IDA declined to submit a written submission. Subsequently in 2018 and more recently in February 2019, they were provided with an outline presentation on the draft policy. On the latter occasion the Association responded positively to the policy and looked forward to engagement during implementation,” said the department.
Health Minister Simon Harris said he very much welcomed the “written support” he received from the association, but stated frankly:
I would make the point that it is government that makes policy and then government negotiates with the contractors that provide that policy. This is what we do in relation to GPs and lots of other people who provide services in the health services. We set the policy, that is why we are elected by the people and the policy direction is clear we want to see a situation in this country where children have access to free dental care.
Free dental care for children will begin to be rolled out from next year, said the minister. He added that dentists will be given investment and resources to roll out the new policy.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
More public services being privatised at the expense of the general public. Every public service will be commodified for profit under FG.
@Dave Doyle:
It’s all in the Fine Gael handbook. The cowboys guide to lazy governance.
There isn’t a problem that can’t be either subsidized, farmed out or sold off.
@Milk The Drones: Taxes are paid to maintain public services. Those taxes always remain in place.
@Dave Doyle: No taxes are now to pay for the public service pay and pensions bill which grows by the year. We are going to see more and more privatizaton of public services and at the same time pay more tax and its all for the public service pay bill, folks we really need to wake-up because these parasites are milking us for every penny at this stage and we are getting very little for it…..its going to get worse and worse as time goes on.
the big question is do we need 158 tds to run a state when everything is privatised out i reckon 60 would be enough now at this stage.
@Peter Hughes: I don’t think it was the civil servant on 23.5 grand a year or the bus driver on 30 that destroyed our economy. It was the greed of certain sections of the private sector that left us up to our eyeballs in dept. The same sector that owns bin collection, social and private house building, telecoms infrastructure, Aer Lingus, etc. And most of the profits of these parasite organisations leave the country. These are no longer services but profit making vehicles.
@Dave Doyle: This has never been about just one party. The oral health policy of Ireland has always been a total joke. Prevention is better than the cure.
@Dave Doyle: Yup, the Irish Tories are going strong!
@Dave Doyle: The HSE will become like the US health service, only those with insurance will be seen and treated. Look at the NHS in England where they outsource everything and that costs them more in their yearly budget that creates everything worse for everyone then especially patients.
My belief about privatisation… “John Perkins, Former Advisor IMF.
“My job was to identify countries with resources that corporations covert, like oil and then arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or from one of its sister organisations. The money however would not go to the country, it would go to our own corporations who would make huge profits, but the majority of the people would suffer terrible as a result, because money would be diverted from Education, Healthcare and other Social Services to pay interest on the debt.”
What happened when the IMF moved in and the debt couldn’t be repaid?
“We go back into that country and say, since you can’t pay your debt, sell your resource oil or whatever real cheap to our corporations without any environmental restrictions or, or social regulations. Privatise, sell your electric utilities, your water, sewage systems, your schools, your jails, all your public sector businesses to our corporations, and in the few cases where we failed economic hitman, the jackals went in and still do and aah, they either assassinate the leaders of the country or overthrow them in coups.”
For all the sheep out there who still think FFG are looking after our interests the likes of this should finally put to bed what this govt is all about. All the talk of recovery and a great economy means nothing when you see what they are doing with their privatisation of everything. Wake up not one vote for FFG/lieb.
Water and sewage are still on the cards for privatization by this government. They will have a referendum for just about anything except water.
I genuinely believe that the only failsafe method of ensuring dental care for ALL children is through the HSE public dental scheme. Those children who might slip through the net in a privatized scheme can be targeted through the public scheme. It has always been an excellent service free (through taxes!) to all children under 16. It wasn’t broke, why fix it? It is the fairest system form all socioeconomic groups. This new plan is a huge step backwards. This current government does not have the good of our children at heart in these plans.
@Deborah Blacoe: it is broke. But this isn’t the solution.
@Deborah Blacoe: the current HSE dental screening programme is broken, children getting their 6th class check up in 2nd Year of secondary school, no longer sealing back molar teeth of children unless they have cavities. I do agree the current system means all children will be seen at some stage and don’t fall through the net. They need to fix the current system, see the children at the right time and stop cutting the budgets for the programme.
@Will Rymer: I’m genuinely interested in what capacity the children’s dental scheme is not working? I presumed (perhaps wrongly) that all school going children had access to dental care.
@Deborah Blacoe: school going children do receive dental care, but it’s not always at the correct time. My oldest child got his 6th class check up when in secondary school due to backlogs. Youngest child didn’t get molars sealed as they no longer have the budget to do it. They will only seal molars of children who have cavities, surely prevention is a better way. Children aren’t being seen in time or not seen at. Children are screened in 2nd & 6th class, it’s not enough, by the time they are in 2nd class the damage has already been done to the adult teeth.
@Deborah Blacoe: The public dental system is broken. Children are not getting their check ups when they’re supposed to. Checks are supposed to be done in 2nd, 4th and 6th class. 4th class check has more or less been phased out. 2nd class checks have been done in 3rd class and some 6th class checks are only done if the child has presented to the Emergency clinic. Add to this, many HSE dental clinics have closed or have been moved to primary care centres which now makes them less accessible to many who can’t afford to go privately. I’m still waiting for a return appointment for my daughter who had two fillings done in the HSE clinic and needs a follow up
@Michelle Rock: you don’t seal a molar with a cavity.. you fill it!! You seal crevices in molars to prevent cavities.
@et: I am well aware that you fill a cavity with a filling and seal the crevices to prevent future cavities. However if a child has no signs of decay they aren’t eligible for the sealants on the teeth from the HSE dental programme. You must pay privately for this to be done from another dentist, due to budget cuts to the programme. Surely as I already said prevention should be the way forward and all children should be having the sealants applied to prevent future cavities.
“The Profit Before People Party”, FFG, coming to a doorstep and polling booth near you folks.
Simon Harris should go back to the post room.
And here it starts. The long ruination of the HSE so they can begin to privatize everything.
Dentists slam policy that will leave them worse off?
No way!
Also were no dentists or just a small number of dentists consulted? Article seems to state both.
@Brinster: Ah the Fine Gael ostrich is up early today…Keep that head in the sand!!
@Simon Connolly:
Don’t belong to any party Simon – just know that doctors and dentists have been milking it for years and anything that will lower their massive wages they’ll scream blue murder about.
@Brinster: you do seem to be a bit of a bluecoat yourself though. I’ve seen you defending and deflecting for FG here a lot.
@Simon Connolly: to be fair, at least he is balancing the argument. I welcome this input, as it can be retorted.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: The chap’s a raging Blueshirt
@Brinster: a hand picked few were asked a limited number of questions- not what you would call “consultation”!
Strong teeth and bones need calcium, vitamin d to help the body absorb calcium and vitamin k2 tells the body where to place the calcium. Tooth decay can be prevented or reversed but most dentists don’t tell you this. Read Weston Price Nutrition and Physical Degeneration for more information.
@Catherine Harris: you know ‘most dentists’ Catherine? Idiot
@Catherine Harris: tooth decay CAN be prevented. Brush and floss and reduce sugar intake frequency.
Has the government ever actually implemented something everyone liked or agreed on?
Too little , Too late
More gov privatizing everything because lets face it, they’re grossly incompetent and can’t manage anything and are massive money wasters of taxpayers money. So we’ll end up a worse health system were the minority haves get great health care while the have nots get nothing, all the while our grossly incompetent policians are making themselves multi millionaires in leinster house.
Can’t believe I am going to defend Fianna Fail here, but during the boom time, Fianna Fail did get alot done, big infrastructure projects like the port tunnel, the luas, they did build houses and rejuvenated the docklands, they did get an awful lot done. Homes now a days are just as expensive as the boom time. Now the economy is meant to be going strong, but Leo and Co don’t seem to be doing much at all, they’re in a dark room, no lights on, just crashing and bumbling around the place until maybe they get a good idea and turn on the light switch.
@Charles McGuire: let’s not give FF too much credit for some things that would have accumulated naturally in the boom times.
@Charles McGuire:
Sorry but Fianna Fail gave power to one person min for finance to pledge taxpayer money for banks in legislation in 08 and b lenihan pledge 34 billion euro of taxppayer money for the debt of anglo irish banks. He then realised not enuf coming inot kitty to pay debt and publc bills so he turned to EU AND raided pension reserve fund for AID soe aid and never used the DAIL .
he told the Dail ( taxpayer to whom dail account) that this loan and ters NONE OF DAIL BUSINESS rather than seeking dail instructon and they are still at it.And will go on until TD get control of fund back to the DAIL AND not minister subject to EU approval under terms of laon never laid before dail.
@Charles McGuire: it’s terrible that I’m considering voting FF just to get FG out. Everything else is so fractured. This must be the most dejected, apathetic voting public in decades.
Surprised ?
Irish have terrible teeth unless they can pay for treatment .All children should be seen from one year then they won’t need as much later on .waiting years for braces just not on
Dentists in ireland are gangsters why listen to them they are as bad as those in government.
@Gerry Gleeson: gangsters?seiously?because they don’t work for free?
I worked as a general dentist in the west of Ireland treating mostly medical cards patients.
I was self employed (like virtually all dentists) so I had no annual leave or sick pay.
I earned around 60000 a year(before tax) and I was required to pay 700 euro per month for indemnity insurance to work legally so took home no more than the average worker really,and unlike them I had no safety net to fall back on should I become sick or need time off.
Like everything in Ireland money talks,and the high running costs of a dental practice inevitably get passed on to the patient.
The public dental school service is a joke…two routine visits during primary school years??.
Very limited treatments and certainly no focus on prevention..
Unfortunately it’s the old saying “you pay for what you get”.
This is a govt cutting cost in one area public health to finance cost in another contracting out govt / public debt for public servciie as they are boj d under loan tems that aout capping banks .
Minister are making all the decisions.
It is also a government ( i. e Taoiseach and Minister) bound to the terms of a loan from the EU and IMF signed by B Lenihan who told the Dail that the TERMS never mind the monies he signed up for and the raids on pension fund was NONE OF DAIL BUSINESS same as saying none of ours who get bill .
But the TD just went along with it perhaps cos voters not prepared to say no . .
These terms make taxpaer liable to keep banks capped to EU standards.
The banks seem to be in need of quick fixes at moment with sale of all these laon books. Cant seem to have patiennce to wiat for borrowers to pay >?
EU only has to deal with a minister whose predecessor told Dail and bt default taxpayer to whom dail account to that all these laon NONE OF DAIL OR TAXPAYER BSINNESS .. JUST PAY THE BILL . TD went along with it .
The minister are making all decision on use of public fund subject to nod of approval from EU cos DAIL left out of terms.
Now minister getting into ovespend .. on broadband and here Minister again circulated documents on broadband to the DAIL with money figure redacted cos contractors do not like it. Same as saying cost to electorate and taxpayer none of their business .
Will he say the same thing for the cost of contracting out of oral dental service ??
The minister is saying in effect none of Taxpayer Business when he say that to the DAIL. It is most insulting and TD are not acting for we who elect and pay them .
But leaders of main parties in DAIL , M Martin , M L McDonnald , B Howlin seem incapable or unwilling to bring minister to account to the DAIL whose job is to manage taxpayer money for us not banks under terms of laon signed by mnster and act for us in those terms .
These are all ministerial decision , the loan , the boadbands, the oral hygince , and dail blocked out and taxpayer just given the bill to service public debt .. another bill to add to personal budget but many jst do not see it why COS TD ARE NOT ACTING FOR US . . . .
Will Martin insist on the broadband coontract being laid before the dail no fig redacted so that DAIL can do job or is he jst going to let the minsiter off again and come with promises that are meaningless until the terms of loan laid befoore Dail Eireann .
Children already have access to free dental care- it’s called the HSE dental service. What is not apparent is that the government have failed in their duty of care to the children of this country by not adequately resourcing the existing structures service. The policy to provide free dental care exists since 1970 minister Harris, but this is a cynical attempt of the department to repackage entitlements which already exist and hide the new limitations of the service they propose, all for political expediency. The suggested model will dismantle existing services and attempt to rebuild to a failed NHS model. Parents- lobby your politicians!!!
Christ..Where are they going to go with their toothless grins now The Jeremy Kyle Show’s been axed.
What’s new…poor children hv no dental care its a disgrace
Since when did we have a public dental service? Is that a recent thing?
extractions can cause premature aging.
https://www.sisuclinic.com/blogs/teeth-whitening-dublin-best-and-cheapest
My teeth are gleeming like Simon Cowell thanks to
https://www.sisuclinic.com/blogs/teeth-whitening-dublin-best-and-cheapest
have your say