A KERRY teenager could be at the centre of a High Court challenge to the five-year waiting period currently endured by thousands of children waiting for orthodontic treatment in the county.

Solicitor and MEP Colm Burke is currently examining the cases of two Kerry teenagers who have been told by the HSE that they will have to wait five years for orthodontic treatment.

According to Mr Burke, the waiting period constitutes an undue delay and discriminates against people from Kerry when children in other counties have to wait for a shorter period.

He is planning to seek a judicial review in the High Court which would give the go-ahead to mount a legal challenge. If successful, the ruling could force the HSE to reduce the amount of time Kerry children have to wait for orthodontic treatment.

One of the cases Mr Burke is examining concerns a 15-yearold Kerry girl who is in dire need of orthdontic treatment and who has been on a waiting list for treatment for the past two years. She is being told by the HSE that she will have to wait three more years for treatment and will be 18 by the time any work is done on her teeth. Were the girl not living in Kerry, it is unlikely she would have to wait as long for treatment. This, according to Mr Burke, amounts to discrimination against the girl because of where she lives.

"It is ironic that in Europe we are looking to cross-border health treatment among states and yet we don't even have a level playing pitch across counties here in Ireland," Mr Burke said.

"Our legal argument will be that, 'because I'm living in Kerry, I'm being discriminated against'," he added.

Mr Burke has had previous success in mounting legal challenges in the High Court. He was one of the legal practitioners who, in 2004, sought a judicial review when he identified elderly patients who had deductions made from their pensions by public nursing homes without any supporting legislation to do so. The successful legal battle resulted in thousands of euro being paid back to public nursing home patients all over the country.

Last January, an internal HSE report slammed the executive's orthodontic services in Kerry over long waiting lists, understaffing and 'slum like' conditions in the region's main orthodontic hospital.

The report — written by the region's top orthodontist Ian O'Dowling, on the state of orthodontic care in Kerry in 2007 — said that over 1,000 Kerry patients, some in need of urgent orthodontic treatment, are waiting up to six years for treatment because of staffing shortages at the HSE South's orthodontic services. The HSE responded by saying that the report was unofficial.

- AIDAN O'CONNOR aoconnor@kerryman.ie