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THE VAST MAJORITY of people in Ireland are not making use of their free dental check-ups, according to new figures.
Out of almost two million people who are entitled to a free examination as a result of paying PRSI contributions, less than 15 per cent actually made use of it last year.
More than half of the two million people were not even aware that they were entitled to a free dental exam, the head of the Irish Dental Association said.
“This is not surprising given that it is the single remaining benefit of the PRSI scheme and one the Department [of Social Protection] has never promoted in any way,” said Peter Gannon, the new president of the IDA.
Gannon was speaking to dentists at the IDA’s annual conference in Kilkenny.
The Irish Dental Association has proposed that the Revenue Commissioners should include a dental voucher with the P60 form which is given to every tax payer by their employer at the start of each year.
Gannon said that the idea would be cheap and worthwhile. “No expensive ad campaigns are involved,” he said.
“In one fell swoop every tax payer – including over 1 million who aren’t even aware of the benefit – will have a tangible voucher in their hand and this, we feel, will encourage much greater take up of the scheme”.
The Dental Treatment Benefit Scheme has been in place since the 1950s and is funded by the social insurance fund.
Taxpayers used to be able to qualify for a whole range of treatments – including fillings, root canal, x-rays and dentures – but since the 2010 Budget the range has been cut back to include only the annual check-up.
In general I am in favour of gun control in that I think it should be difficult to obtain a licence, there should be Garda Vetting and I also think that a Doctors Cert should be required. However once these conditions are complied with then I see no reason do deny a licence.
It is extremely rare that legal guns are used to commit a crime.
True but even gun owners like myself are often looked at by the Gardai as criminals when renewing our license….I think they resent us having guns in the first place.
It is difficult. We jump through hoops We are vetted, they have access to all our medical records. What else do you need?
When the owner’s licence is revoked, what happens to the firearm?
The gards take it and they then surrender it to a licenced gun Smith who will sell it on. The profit from the gun is given to charity im told.
@seeingeye It is used in a mass killing rampage
Dealer sells it and owner get the money less selling fee
It gets handed back to the shinners
Yes and then they recycle it into printer cartridges.
Which they use to print posters advertising their cheap diesel
And sell their cheap diesel to buy first class plane tickets.
To use the private health care facilities in other countries
And stay in the lap of luxury at the expense of a “friend” while undergoing treatment.
In preparation for the “cultural enrichment” program?
And all while Germans are arming themselves in record numbers. I wonder why
http://thelondonpost.net/more-germans-are-arming-themselves/
The garda take the gun and the owner never hears of it again and no money is handed over. Thats what happened me anyway, I had a rifle and was a member of a target shooting club, got bored so handed the gun into the garda.
” When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
So it will end up only the criminals owning weapons? Sure why would you need a gun anyway with the hiards of Gardai keeping crime at its lowest level for years…………………………not
Hoards of….
Gus, these controls are already in place and many more. Ireland most likely has the most restrictive firearms licensing in Europe.
Sorry, meant to reply to p o foghlu
Gus. if you had made this comment 3 to 4 years ago you would have got nearly all thumbs down. As I’ve said many times, if a man with a sweeping brush meets a man with a baseball bath, the man with the sweeping brush is a dead man!
This article is listed as Gun Crime ? What is that about ?
It involves guns!
It’s my money, I just don’t like filling up the forms.
I had the licence for my grandfathers antique gun collection revoked because “I had no need to own a gun”. I had to surrender the guns to a smith and they they are just sitting there in a safe.
I had no live ammunition on the premises and from what I can tell these guns haven’t been fired for 50+ years. They are just a family heirloom. While I understand gun control is important, I hardly think many drug gangs are lining up at their local Garda stations to register their antique weapons form the 1910′s.
The only reason they are clamping down on what are legally held firearms is that they have failed miserably to deal with burglary.
That’s where the legally held firearms are getting into criminal hands. This is just passing the buck.
The proper criminals would thumb their nose at these firearms anyway, they can get new semi automatic pistols imported for peanuts.
Once again the law abiding get shafted for a bogus reason.
Do you think that “having a nice antique that I inherited from my grandad” is a sufficient reason to be awarded a firearms certificate?
Most revoking of firearms due to admin errors by guards eg license for bolt action wrongly issued as pump action, to correct error guards revoke original and issue new license?
Hope we never have to defend ourselves.. Big sticks all round.
A ‘gun-grab’ is the normal practice of a Fascist regime.
It says enough about this FG/liebour government, that they feel the need for an armed Gárda escort to go canvassing.
Well obviously the revoking of legally held firearms makes illegally held firearms just … disappear?
Really helped with the illegal AK’s used to kill a lad at that boxing match.
Previous posts are bang on -the Republic of Ireland already has the strictest gun laws in Europe, if not the western World. Gun controls are a necessary part of life – nobody wants to end up like the US – but removing sporting firearms from citizens that have no criminal record and use daid firearms within the legal parameters of sport is simply Fine Gael extending its fascist policies. All fascist states want their law abiding citizens disarmed, it is part of the ideology. It will have no effect on gun crime – the most mooted reason for depriving citizens of sporting firearms – because criminals have easy access to high tech weaponry that the state has been unable to impede, to a level of incompetence only equalled by their dismal record with the health service. Deflection by Fine Gael/Labour of the lowest sort – they know that mentioning firearms abolition will curry favour with John Q citizen that does not understand how tightly controlled they are in the first place. Despicable, playing on voters uninformed fears. The sooner Fine Gael.and Labour are out of power, the better for the country and its citizens.
Why are licenses being given when there is no good reason for the owner to have one in the first place!?
Have you ever heard of hunting or clay pigeon shooting? Some people enjoy those pastimes
They might have had a good reason when they initially applied. If they’ve held the licence a few years and renew it annually but no longer use it for it’s original purpose then the licence will be revoked as there’s no good reason to hold one.
Michael, respectfully, just because YOU have no good reason doesn’t mean others are the same way…. not everyone has to have the same hobbies.
No side-by-side double-barelled shotguns listed. Proper shotguns for proper shooting people.
If a gun owner is involved in an altercation with someone for any reason and the gardai get involved they can confiscate firearms from them as a matter of form just in case the dispute may continue. Just remove the possibility of the gun being used in the dispute. They may or may not get the gun back in the future. All depends on their role in the dispute.
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