Dentists are poised to restore services to the State's 1.7 million insured workers, it was learnt last night.
Detailed proposals aimed at finally ending the year-long dispute are to be put tomorrow to the General Practice Committee of the Irish Dental Association.
The proposals followed exhaustive negotiations between the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, and the IDA, the association's general secretary, Mr Donal Atkins, confirmed last night.
These recent negotiations got underway with more than five hours exploratory talks on Tuesday, January 28th, between the IDA and the Minister.
Further negotiations followed on Friday and continued over the weekend, said Mr Atkins. He declined, however, to predict the outcome of tomorrow's General Practice Committee conference.
Between 900 and 1,000 family dentists are affected. The dispute has meant that more than 90 per cent of dentists who provided treatment under the dental benefit scheme were in dispute with Ms Coughlan's Department over fees.
Under the PRSI scheme, the Department paid for certain services such as check-ups and polishing, and 70 per cent of a set fee for treatments such as fillings. The dentists contended they were forced to increase their charges as these set fees were far too low.
Since August last year, the Department refused to accept claims from dentists who had been charging increased rates to PRSI contributors since March.
As a result, PRSI patients who received treatment from a dentist involved in the dispute had to pay the full charge, rather than receiving the treatment free, or at a reduced rate. "If patients are being treated privately, the Department and I cannot refund private fees," the Minister told the Dáil in October. And she refuted any insinuation that her objective in refusing to deal with the dentists was to save money. She wanted to "preserve the scheme" for the benefit of insured persons.
Ms Coughlan later indicated she would only talk to the dentists if they dropped the new charges. The dentists in turn said they would not do this until the Minister entered into serious negotiations.
The indications are that impasse has at least been broken.