Rose Conway-Walsh: Demands Action on Dental Care Crisis
Rose Conway-Walsh addresses an escalating dental care crisis in Mayo, detailing sharp falls in the number of public dentists, long waiting lists and crippling private costs for families. She calls for a public-only dentist contract, expanded roles for hygienists and dental nurses, and a strategic workforce plan to fix access to care.
What she set out
Rose Conway-Walsh highlights official figures showing a drop in dentists providing care under the Dental Treatment Service in Mayo between 2019 and 2025, and argues this shortage explains soaring waiting lists and unmet need. She credits colleague David Cullinane for compiling solutions and pushes the Minister to act.
Personal cases and costs
She recounts urgent cases from her constituency: a seven-year-old forced into private care with a referral to Dublin and a quoted cost of
c4,000; a child waiting three years for braces; and an autistic, deaf boy whose complex pathway to treatment cost
c6,000 and caused serious trauma. An elderly woman also faced delays because no dentist could be found.
Policy proposals
Conway-Walsh sets out concrete measures: introduce a public-only dentist contract to reduce waiting lists, prioritise school screening and medical card holders, allow direct access to hygienists and dental nurses within scope of practice, and implement a strategic workforce plan to address skill shortages.
Demand for action
She concludes by pressing the Minister for a clear action plan and workforce strategy, saying that practical solutions are available and must be implemented to prevent further harm to children, older people and vulnerable patients.
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I acknowledge the really hard work that my colleague David Cullinan has done in this area and has presented all of the solutions and the proposals forward to be able to fix what's happening in dental care. Dental care is a critical part of the health and well-being of any human being, any human being, but it's not treated like that by the failure of this government to address the critical shortage of health care provision. Between 2019 and 2025, the number of dentists in Mayo providing care under the Dental Treatment Service fell from just 31 to 22. How can you have dentists when the government fails to invest in the public services? And we haven't even, all of those are full to capacity. The evidence is clear. We need to introduce a public-only dentist contract in order to reduce waiting lists, to ensure that children have timely access to preventative and corrective care and prioritise school screening and medical card holders. Patients should have a direct access to hygienists and to dental nurses within their scope of practice to reduce the waiting list. Now, one mother from Mayo contacted me about her seven-year-old son who had to attend a private dentist because he could not access public treatment. She was told that he would need to be referred to Dublin because he needed two surgeries in Galway. They normally do them in Galway, but they were full in Galway and the treatment would cost €4,000. €4,000, Minister? That's completely unaffordable for the vast majority of parents. Another child is 12 years old and has never been seen by a dentist through the school, while another mother told me her child is waiting three years for braces. Another mum describes the ordeal of her autistic deaf son who had to get urgent dental care. He had to be hospitalised, then sent to Arnmore, then sent to the Hermitage Clinic, then sent to Durham, and the whole experience was so traumatising for him. It ended up costing €6,000. €6,000, this is just nuts. Minister, we need an action plan to improve dental care delivery and drastically reduce the waiting list. We need a strategic workforce plan to address the skill shortage. The solutions are here, Minister. You need to find them. I'll tell you of another case of an elderly woman waiting for an operation. A dentist couldn't be found anywhere to do the critical care that was needed for that woman to be done. The horrific cases that are coming forward have to be dealt with. Minister, I'm really tired of bringing up this subject and nothing being done.
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