'Do-nothing government' slammed over Mayo dental care service

"If there was ever an example of a do-nothing government, it is when it comes to dental care."

That's according to Mayo TD Rose Conway-Walsh.

She made her point when reading a letter in Dáil Éireann which she received from a 'desperate' Mayo parent.

It stated: "I’m writing to you as a desperate mother from Mayo. For the past five years, my family has been unable to access any dental care through the medical card in our area.

"No one is accepting new patients, and despite endless phone calls, pleading, and searching, we’ve hit a brick wall over and over again.

"My 23-year-old daughter is on a disability payment and has been in constant dental pain.

"She has many cracked teeth, cavities and a likely infection, and she is getting to the point where she may not be able to eat soon.

She’s trying every day to find someone who will see her, but there is just no one available.

"She is only 23 and deserves so much better than this.

"My husband is also suffering.

"He was told he needed dentures and was referred to get all his teeth removed first but no one in the county will do it.

"He was even sent to the north for treatment, but they couldn’t help him and he had to come back [to Mayo] untreated.

"He’s now left in limbo, unable to eat properly, in pain, and with no idea [of] where to turn.

"Our family is at the end of our rope.

"We feel ignored, abandoned, and forgotten by a [government and a] system that is supposed to care for its people. This has become an emergency.

"We don’t have the money to go private, and yet the public system is impossible to access."

Deputy Conway Walsh commented: "That about sums it up. I do not know how many times last year I spoke on dental services and the lack of them in Mayo.

"We were referred to the HSE and back again, and when there was nothing there, back again. For heaven's sake, will the government please do something?

"Can the dental care system please be fixed? It is a basic human right."