The Health Minister has disputed claims that up to 10,000 children a year are having teeth removed under general anaesthetic. Leo Varadkar says the true figure is likely far lower.

The figures - from the Irish Dental Association - would put the number of such cases here at five times the rate of the UK.

The association claims it is down to cutbacks and severe tooth decay as many children don't see a dentist until they are five or six years old.

However Minister Varadkar says he wants to see the evidence for the figures because the figures he has seen paint a starkly different picture of the situation.

“The figure that they use is 10,000, the figures that I have got is that that figure is incorrect, that there are about 3,600 dental extractions in Ireland every year under GA (general anaesthetic) so I think we all need to know the facts before jumping to any conclusions,” he said.

“The number of publicly employed dentists has gone down from about 312 to 300 in the last couple of years, so there hasn’t been a significant reduction in the number of publicly employed dentists,” he added.

The Irish Dental Association has claimed that 10,000 under 15s have teeth taken out under general anaesthetic, in hospitals, each year in Ireland.

The Association also claims that many of the children are waiting up to 12 months for treatment, and they may be prescribed multiple courses of antibiotics before they are admitted.

Cutbacks are being cited as one of the reasons as well as poor dental care at a young age.

President of the Dental Association Dr Anne Twomey says education and dental care during school years are lacking in many areas: "There are some black spots in the country where there is very minimal screening and the children are not being seen before the age of 12, which is way too late. The black spots would be Galway, Offaly, Kerry and some parts of Cork."

"Compared to the UK, for which we have numbers, we are five times higher than the rate in the UK."