Irish Dental Union Angered by Secret Cutbacks
The Irish Dental Union is outraged, after it was revealed that the Health Service Executive spent millions of euros less than promised on dental care.
New figures have confirmed that the HSE spent 11.5 million euros less than promised on dental services for medical card holders last year. The Irish Dental Union said that the secret cutback, which was made in addition to cuts outlined in the budget, was an “outrage”, as there was already a severe under-spend on dental care.
The Union has now urged Health Minister, James Reilly to order an investigation into the cutbacks. The HSE spent a total of 51.5 million euros on the medical card scheme, instead of the promised figure of 63 million euros.
Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Union, said that it was appalling that medical card holders have been let down so badly by the system and that the additional cutbacks have been made on a scheme that is already severely under-funded. The scheme has already been cut significantly over the last two years and dentists have been campaigning for a change in the system since the cuts were first confirmed by the HSE.
Mr Hourihan said that the HSE had spent less on medical card holders, despite there being an increase in the number of holders, after 63,000 more people joined the scheme, but there was an under-spend of more than 11 million euros.
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