Dentists today have threatened to withdraw free treatment for medical card holders unless the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Minister for Health agree to renegotiate the Dental Treatment Service Scheme (DTSS).
The DTSS, set up in 1994, means dentists are paid a fee to provide free oral health care services to medical holders but the Irish Dental Association (IDA) say it is now "on the verge of collapse".
According to the IDA, the HSE and Mary Harney have, despite repeated requests, "failed to fully engage" and complete a six-and-a-half-year review of the DTSS.
The IDA will ballot its members this week on removing its support for the DTSS scheme in general practice pending a satisfactory resolution to the review.
The IDA says that since 2005, 500 dentists have withdrawn from the scheme, with many practitioners "forced to opt out of the scheme because it is not financially viable for them to continue to provide dental services at a loss as well as managing the unwieldy day-to-day bureaucracy that is associated with the scheme".
Dr Maurice Quirke, chairman of the general dental practitioner group, IDA, said: "Regrettably payments received from the HSE have failed to increase even in line with inflation, and increasingly family dentists have had to cover the costs and overheads associated with providing this service.
"An increasing number of practitioners have had to opt out of the scheme because the HSE continues to drag its heels in relation to renegotiating the scheme and as a result its long term viability is now under serious threat.
"The collapse of the scheme will mean that one million people who currently receive free oral health care services under the HSE scheme will no longer have access to this treatment at their local family dental surgery," he said.
The HSE has stated that it wishes to reject "inaccurate and misleading statements contained in the IDA Press Release".
The HSE said in it's own statement that a review of the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) is currently underway..
"The scope of the review is wide ranging and addresses the most effective means of providing these services to the eligible population, service and contractual changes required to deliver a quality service as well as governance and accountability arrangements," the statment said.
It went on to say that during the course of the review a legal issue arose in relation to the setting of fees with dentists.
"The IDA was fully appraised of this situation and at their request, pending receipt of clarification on the legal issue from the Office of the Attorney General, discussions on this aspect of the review were temporarily put on hold.
"A determination on this issue by the Office of the Attorney General is expected soon and this will determine the appropriate mechanism and process for setting fees for a new contract."
The statement emphasised that the HSE "remains available for early and meaningful engagement with the IDA on a range of contractual issues that will have to be determined in advance of fee setting and a new DTSS contract."