Mr. David Keegan:

We are. I would have to answer that question by also including our community ophthalmology and medical ophthalmology colleagues, who account for a further 25 full-time equivalents in Ireland in both full-time and part-time posts. That provides a better measure to then benchmark against other European countries. In countries such as Greece, Germany and France, the ratio is approximately 1:25,000, whereas in Ireland, if one includes the aforementioned group, the ratio is approximately 1:85,000. Consequently, we are very under-represented in this regard. I published a manpower report that was submitted to the Department of Health in 2010, in which we recommended an additional 13 ophthalmic surgical consultants and an additional 17 medical ophthalmologists to meet that need. That was simply in the context of bringing us up to close to the levels of the United Kingdom, rather then to European levels. We are supported by the private sector in Ireland and many of the indicators from around Europe might merge the two sets of figures from the public and private sectors. There are a further 40 full-time equivalents, approximately, within the private sector here. Consequently, we seek an increase in the number of appointments in hospitals. When one considers all the hospitals providing eye services, they would require an increase in consultant surgical staff. However, additional medical ophthalmology staff are also required and such additional staff would be both community and hospital based. This would tackle our waiting lists, as while routine waiting times vary around the country, in general one is looking at one to two years for a routine eye appointment.