Dentists have called for some of the revenue from a proposed 'sugar tax' on soft drinks to be invested in a national oral healthcare programme.

The Irish Dental Association (IDA) said that due to the negative effect  the consumption of soft drinks has on dental health and cutbacks to free and subsidised State dental schemes, it was logical that a proportion of any monies raised should be allocated to dental health.

The IDA said the medical card and the PRSI dental treatment schemes had led to a huge improvement in the dental health of the nation, and both schemes needed to be restored urgently to their former status.

Under recent cutbacks, medical card patients can only get emergency dental care, and subsidised care has been abolished for everything but dental examinations under the PRSI scheme.

Dr Michael Crowe of the IDA, said the 'sugar tax' issue was complex and overall, the IDA was not persuaded of the merits of such a tax in tackling obesity levels.

He said the national consumption data for these products did not show a correlation between increased consumption of soft drinks and indices of obesity.

However, Dr Crowe said from a dental perspective, it was clear that a reduction in the frequency and volume of intake of any sugary drink or food could help in reducing the risk of dental caries.

"What is clear is that we need to reduce our consumption of all sugary drinks. So reducing consumption is not the issue, finding the best way to achieve that is."

Dr Crowe said given that 60% of the population did not consume sugar-sweetened beverages, any measure aimed at taxing this food group would potentially target a minority of the population.

The introduction of such a tax would also have a disproportionate effect on lower income households, he claimed.