The Government was accused of handling the payments' dispute with the Irish Dental Association (IDA) in a "disastrous fashion". The results of a postal ballot by dentists to end the dispute are expected next week.
Labour's Mr Willie Penrose (Westmeath), a barrister, said there should have been "an inbuilt mechanism for the resolution of disputes" in the agreement between the Government and the IDA.
"Was there no binding condition in the agreement that, as soon as a dispute arose, it would have to be referred to arbitration?"
He did not blame the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, but her predecessor, because "for more than two years it was relentlessly going towards a breakdown".
Mr Penrose asked how much the dispute had saved the department in PRSI payments. It had to be "several million euro".
The Minister said that payments were made three months behind schedule so it was not possible to say "if there have been any savings from people not taking up the scheme". Dental benefit expenditure last year was €35.1 million, up by €100,000 on the previous year.
Ms Coughlan rejected allegations by Mr Michael Ring (FG, Mayo) that she had made no effort to resolve the dispute because it saved money.
The Fine Gael deputy also criticised the Minister for failing to compensate patients who paid increased dental fees. "People who paid their social insurance in this case are like those who pay to insure their cars, but when they have a crash the insurance won't pay."
Ms Coughlan said it would have been "farcical" for her to allow a system to go ahead that was contrary to the contract. She also insisted that she and her predecessor had made every effort to resolve it.
She was not au fait with the precise details in the contract regarding the resolution of a dispute, but "in view of the free legal advice I am getting in the House, we might look at that in the next contract".
"I appreciate that Deputy Ring loves the headlines, but I did not do it to save money. I did it on the basis that I had to protect the customer, the patient."
The department has a contract with the IDA for the provision of certain dental treatments which patients with PRSI benefit receive for free or at a reduced rate. The department pays the difference directly to dentists for an agreed rate.
The dispute arose from the IDA's belief that the rates were not sufficient, and it recommended that its members charge patients an increased fee. The Department refused to sanction this, and would not accept claims from dentists who charged the increased fee.
Mr Ring also said that the Minister "cannot expect a person who has a dentist he or she uses regularly to use a dentist they have never used before". When the Department clashed with the IDA, it offered patients the option of going to dentists still operating the scheme.
