Society

The HSE and the Irish Dental Association (IDA) have strongly rejected reports that in excess of 10 per cent of the €85 million budget spent on a dental scheme may be paid to dentists making fraudulent and inappropriate claims. The scheme is known as the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS).

After 13 days of sitting, at a time of the gravest national crisis in generations, the Dáil adjourned at 9.40pm on Wednesday last, October 21st, and will not convene again until next Tuesday, November 3rd (having been absent for 10 weeks previously). The Finance Committee which is going through the Nama Bill did sit throughout Thursday and convened again yesterday but only 43 TDs were listed as having attended and only 24 of these (out of 166) contributed to the debate – a further five uttered a heckle, in most instances a single heckle.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has been severely criticised for its failure to manage its own public dental service that provides free dental care for children, people with disabilities and older people in care. The criticisms are contained in a new report on the service. The Public Dental Service (PDS) has a budget of €60 million for 2009 and services are provided by 200 dentists, working as HSE employees.

More than 10 per cent of the claims made by private dentists could be inappropriate or fraudulent, writes Sara Burke

A SERIES of unpublished reports on the free dental scheme for adults reveals that in excess of 10 per cent of the €85 million budget is paid out by the HSE on inappropriate or fraudulently claimed payments by dentists in private practice.

In the last week alone, four reports detailing the performance of Ireland's health service have been published. Yet they hardly hit the public radar -  blanket media coverage of NAMA is a sure boon for HSE public relations. The reports provide myriad facts and figures - the June and July HSE PR reports, the ESRI HIPE report for 2007, the Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General which has over 50 pages on different aspects of the health service.  So what do these reports really tell us?

In 1961 at the age of 24, Christy Dunne, the eldest of the family, wrote a book. He had been charged with robbery and was on the run. He evaded the law for six months by living in a Jesuit retreat house in Dublin, and during that time, he wrote his book. By Mary Raftery. Additional reporting by Colm Toibin

From the Magill archive, by Mary Raftery who died on January 10, 2012 following an illness. It was this investigation of the Dunne family in 1983 that brought to Mary's attention the abuse of children in state industrial schools; the Dunne brothers each told Mary similar stories of abuse under the 'care' of religious orders.