Letters to the Editor: The public dental system is falling apart
Citing the Irish Dental Association, a reader says there are now fewer than 650 Dental Treatment Service Scheme medical card dentists nationwide. Picture: iStock
Our public dentistry system has completely collapsed and our Government is telling us repeatedly that they are “working on the problem”.
This rhetoric is of little comfort to thousands of people who are living in pain, sometimes great pain, waiting to be seen and treated by the very few remaining number of dentists still in the medical card system. Less than 650 Dental Treatment Service Scheme (DTSS) medical card dentists remain nationwide — source: Irish Dental Association on their website. Down from 1,660 in 2007.
This represents an almost two-thirds drop in 16 years and the waiting lists go on forever for dentists, which may refuse any more patients. That is 63 dentists circa leaving the DTSS annually on average, or five a month.
Every opposition party across the board has voiced serious concerns about the public dentistry system and their constituents whose medical cards are worthless for oral health.
Yet, the Government is not making any immediate effective changes to reverse the situation. Dentists are not telling patients that they have come off the medical and get a very big shock as they pay or promise on the way out at reception.
Many families who use the public dentistry system on low incomes cannot afford extremely expensive dentistry or orthodontic/endodontic treatment. They are now going into serious debt to pay for what should be paid by general scheme of taxation as it is in the UK. Even those with direct PSRI benefits to appear are getting a very limited service. There seems to be a totally different attitude by our Government when dealing with GPs in sharp contrast to those dealing with oral health.
Dentists and related fields play a vital role in people’s health care and are able to spot mouth cancer as well as relieve pain — so it is well worth our Government bringing back public dentistry and placing a greater priority on oral health.
I was delighted that Helen Ogbu was elected as a city councillor last weekend in the east ward electoral area, Galway’s first person of colour to be elected to city hall.
In one way, it’s surprising that it took so long for something like this to happen considering the high non-national population of the city according to recent census results, approximately 20%. Galway City East is the most culturally diverse area of Galway.
It was a good result, too, in the face of anti-immigrant sentiment emanating from certain quarters. As we all know, a number of parties ran candidates on an anti-immigrant platform, but all of these candidates were rejected in the three city wards. In fact, nationally only a handful of anti-immigrant candidates were elected.
What this means is that those that shout the loudest do not always represent the views of ordinary citizens.
I saw some horrendous racist comments posted on Helen Ogbu’s Facebook profile a number of weeks ago and another person may have been tempted to quit the race. Social media can be a pit where often people spew out their hatred in the hope of intimidating people, but the democratic process that we have all witnessed and some of us took part in tells the real story. In general, Irish people are very tolerant and have little time for far-right racist agitators.
I was watching the D-Day 80th commemorations from the beaches of Normandy and was surprised by the sincerity and empathy shown by president of France Emmanuel Macron towards the veterans.
Sincerity and empathy are not the words the public would associate with politicians, but its rarity was shown that day by a grateful president.
There are many leaders, whether presidents, prime ministers, monarchs, or dictators, who have cold and indifferent personas that have no empathy with those they represent or rule. That is why Macron was a breath of fresh air with his dignified presence and eloquent speeches.
When he pinned the Legion d’honneur to each of the veterans’ chests, he did so with pride and appreciation. Although he was born long after D-Day, he was aware of the sacrifice so many made to free France and the rest of occupied Europe, and the contribution the veterans made.
Before the veterans received their medals, he looked at each of them with a warm smile and read out their names and the Legion d’honneur citation. He then kissed them warmly on each cheek as though he was kissing and embracing a family member. When it came to bestowing the honour on 103-year-old veteran British naval officer Christian Lamb, he surpassed himself with his touching and heartfelt speech, outlining her life and her contribution to the war effort.
There was nothing staged by his actions nor was he just going through the motions that we are so used to seeing from politicians.
Where Macron showed the essence of good manners, decorum and respect, the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was lacking in all these attributes when he deserted the Normandy beaches, in favour of a vanity TV interview in the hope of raising his profile for the forthcoming general election. By his self-indulgent action he let down a whole nation and insulted the surviving veterans and the memory of all those young men who died for freedom, the freedom that allowed him, in a democracy, saved by those he insulted, to reach the high office he holds.
Although there are many in France who do not appreciate Macron, they should give him his due, that on this special occasion he represented their nation in an honourable and dignified way, and an example to other leaders.
Watching the D-Day 80th anniversary celebrations, I can’t help but be saddened by the fact that large swathes of the continent liberated by those brave Allied troops are once again falling under the spell of a toxic racism and xenophobia that seek to displace democracy and common human decency.
A revamped fascist ideology has re-emerged from the shadows and the ruble of a crushing defeat in that most horrific of all wars.
In the weeks following D-Day, the advancing liberators encountered crimes against humanity that left them numb, despite all the horrors they’d witnessed on the battlefield. What they found at the camps was the result of racism unchecked.
It ought to have been a lesson to us all that humankind could not possibly forget. But the passage of time has eroded the searing truth revealed by the exposure of what men in fancy Hugo Boss uniforms euphuistically called the Final Solution.
We’ve all seen it in documentaries, or re-enacted in movies such as Schindler’s List, and we still have those precious survivors of that dark time to attest that it really did happen. Conspiracy theorists can’t silence the witnesses.
Yet, it seems, hatred of one fellow human beings because of skin colour or ethnicity; is still with us, and unfortunately thriving in certain districts and communities.
We need another D-Day, this time a large-scale peaceful “offensive”, to liberate hearts and minds from the tyranny of racism.
