I commend Deputy Cullinane on his work and advocacy on this and the proposals he has brought forward in this Private Members' motion. There is no doubt that dental care is no longer simply under pressure. It is in crisis. That is clear for everybody to see. Across the State, there are 11,000 people - mainly children - waiting on dental and orthodontic treatment while thousands of others are waiting far too long for routine dental care. That is why we are calling for urgent action. In counties like my own county of Donegal, the issue has been felt. It is really serious there. There 420 people in the north west - mainly children - on the HSE waiting list for dental and orthodontic treatment. This for braces, dental surgery and other types of interventions. Nearly one quarter of these people are waiting for over a year. That is disgraceful. The number of dentists participating in the dental treatment services scheme in Donegal and elsewhere has fallen in recent years. Over recent weeks, I have been contacted by dentists in the Irish Dental Association who outlined the growing crisis facing patients in Donegal. They have told me that there is a significant and ongoing withdrawal of dentists from the medical card scheme. Everybody living in the county can tell you that. Long-established clinics are no longer accepting new medical card patients while others have withdrawn from the scheme altogether or have had to reduce the services they provide and there has been no response from Government. In rural counties like Donegal, this means that people are travelling significant distances simply to access basic dental care and some cannot get an appointment at all. One dentist in Donegal even told me that the system is designed to force dentists to go private. He also explained that on many occasions, dentists like him are being asked to extract teeth for free in emergencies and are constantly under pressure to provide fillings for free because people cannot get free care. All of this exposes a system that is simply no longer working and it is having a real impact on older people, families with younger children and those living in isolated rural communities. Access to care increasingly depends not just on need but on where people live and whether they can afford to pay privately. The Government should be listening to those on the front line. Instead of allowing the system to continue to collapse and deteriorate, it needs to work with the profession to restore access and ensure that nobody is left without essential care.

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