The Government is "ignoring the effective collapse of the dental profession in Ireland", the Irish Dental Association (IDA) has claimed.

According to the IDA's chief executive, Fintan Hourihan, oral health is "vitally important for overall health", yet a major proportion of the population cannot access this care because so many dentists have had to close their practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Dentists' incomes are down by over 90% on average during the COVID-19 pandemic as routine dentistry has been prohibited and emergency care cannot be provided in many cases due to unavailable or overly expensive personal protective equipment (PPE) and other requirements," Mr Hourihan explained.

He said that repeated representations to the Government by the IDA in recent weeks have not been answered.

"I cannot overstate the sense of despair and panic in the dental profession at present. Unfortunately, there is also considerable anger among dentists at what is seen as complete neglect of our reasonable concerns by the Government.

"Medics and pharmacists have, quite rightly, been offered extensive support from the Government in order to continue to operate in such challenging circumstances. However, dentists have been left utterly isolated," Mr Hourihan said in a letter to the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, and the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe.

He noted that it is ironic that the Government and public health experts are advising people not to ignore their general health during the COVID-19 pandemic, "while the dental profession was close to collapse".

He also said that it was regrettable that emergency dental centres established by the HSE only cater for children under 16, people with special needs and those with medical cards.

"The key for dentists is that there needs to be some measure of confidence that they will be able to resume viable practice in the near future . . . The IDA is urging the Government to consider a special kick-start package for dentistry," Mr Hourihan said.

The IDA is calling on the Government to consider a number of proposals, including:
- The provision of financial support to enable dentists to source PPE now required and mandated by the Dental Council, and also to make whatever other structural changes may be needed to their clinics
- Temporarily suspend the collection of professional withholding tax from payments made to dentists contracted by the HSE and the Department of Social Protection to treat medical care and PRSI-eligible patients respectively
-Direct the Revenue Commissioners to introduce a moratorium on VAT payments
-Direct the Department of Social Protection to halve the rate of Employer PRSI contributions.