Tenerife dental practice prepares list of Irish no-shows for gardaí

Roberta Beccaris, office manager at Clinica Dental Tenerife Sur: 'We think these people are just coming for a holiday and we have a file ready for when the police come to us for the information.'

A Tenerife dental surgery has said it is willing to give the names of 50 Irish people who booked but did not turn up for dental appointments to the gardaí.

Staff at the dental practice on the Canary Island suspect the bookings were made to get around Ireland’s travel restrictions.

They have prepared a file for gardaí should authorities here want them.

The appointments, made mostly for the past few days, were mostly by young couples living in Dublin. Almost all of them failed to attend.

A number were for non-urgent services including teeth whitening.

One person who wanted an appointment for later in the month at Clinica Dental Tenerife Sur rang complaining they had a “toothache”.

“Obviously, they weren't in that much pain if they were happy to wait two weeks to be seen," office manager Roberta Beccaris told the Irish Examiner.

The clinic is located in the heart of the Fairway Village Golf del Sur, part of a 410-acre golfing and marina holiday resort and village in the south of the island, which has one of the lowest Covid-19 infection rates in Europe.

Under level 5, one of the few essential reasons for travelling from Ireland includes seeking “essential medical, health, or dental services”, or accompanying someone you live with who needs essential treatment.

Fines

The Government is to up fines for those caught travelling without a valid reason to €2,000.

There are currently four flights available from Ryanair direct from Dublin to Tenerife South Airport, costing around €145 return from two people. From the beginning of next month, there will be twice-weekly flights. They cost around €67.36 for a couple, but seats are already starting to book up. The March 4 flight to Tenerife South is almost all booked out.

“There is no reason why anybody in Ireland needs to travel abroad for dental care," said Fintan Hourihan, CEO of the Irish Dental Association.

“All dental care is available and has been since last May. Dentistry is regarded as an essential service in Ireland. 

It is highly unlikely anybody would be referred to get their teeth done in the Canary Islands.” 

Dr Ann Twomey, of Church Hill Dental Practice in Carrigaline, Co Cork, added: “It’s scurrilous to go abroad to get something done that can be done here. I can't think of any situation where you would need to go abroad to get your teeth done.” 

Ms Beccaris told the Irish Examiner: “Normally, we would expect to get appointments from elderly people in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

“So it did not surprise us when we started getting a few calls from Ireland about two weeks ago. But what was unusual was that when we agreed the day and the sitting, they were asking for an email back with a confirmation of the appointment. It was something new because never before would we receive such a request.

“And it wasn't for just one patient, it was for all of them. They all asked for the email. So we started to get a bit suspicious about it. And almost all the appointments were booked for this week.” 

The last appointment booked from Dublin for this week was one for 1.30pm yesterday.

“Obviously, they never turned up,” she added. “We waited for them but they never came. Now all the emails we have received, we are keeping them. And we are not making any new appointments from Ireland at the moment.

"These type of appointments steal the space that could be used by local people who genuinely need to have their teeth cared for.

“We think these people are just coming for a holiday and we have a file ready for when the police come to us for the information.”

Last night Commissioner Drew Harris said gardaí do not consider "a dentist's appointment in Tenerife as being a reasonable excuse to travel". Asked about the issue on the Late Late Show, he said: "Medical intervention, medical treatment is allowed for in the regulations but that is against the clause about how reasonable it is. I would suggest that travelling to Tenerife, thousands of kilometres, whenever there are perfectly good dentists here in Ireland is not reasonable. From this morning we have changed our approach, we warned people that they may be prosecuted if they carry on on their journey. We don't regard a dentist's appointment in Tenerife as being a reasonable excuse to travel."

The garda chief went on to say: "We have found that the €500 fine is perhaps not the deterrent we thought it might be, but we found out today that people have turned back rather than be prosecuted and have a criminal record and risk actually imprisonment or a suspended sentence which is far greater penalty than a €500 fixed penalty notice. We hope that that will send a message in terms of non-essential international travel."

When asked if gardaí will take the file containing the Irish people's names at the clinic, a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána declined to comment.