Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have had a close look at the matter in the past couple of days. First, I want to clarify that the Opticians Act, 1956 does not currently restrict the employment of assistants to help in selecting frames or processing payments. That means that there will be no change to the status quo under the Bill.
By way of background, section 34 of the Bill inserts a new Part 7A into the principal Act to provide for restrictions on prescribing, dispensing prescriptions and selling spectacles. Part 7A includes the new sections 81A and 81B which effectively restate and retain in law the provisions of sections 47 and 49 of the Opticians Act, 1956 for the prescription, dispensing and sale of spectacles. In addition, section 81C of the Bill provides for the making of by-laws for the regulation and control of the prescribing of spectacles, the dispensing of prescriptions for spectacles and the sale of spectacles. These matters are best dealt with under secondary legislation in by-laws rather than primary legislation. If in the future the Optical Registration Board wants to clarify further the position on selecting frames or processing payments, it has the statutory power to do so through by-laws and will have to do so following full consultation. Let me put it in simple language. We are not trying to change the status quoin this legislation; rather, we are trying to make sure only qualified dispensing opticians and optometrists can do the work they currently do, that is, examine a person's eyes, give a prescription for glasses or contact lenses and dispense the correct lenses. When it comes to helping a person to pick out frames or handling cash at the till, it does not have to be done by an optometrist. This work can be done by a sales assistant. It does not have to be done by somebody who is a qualified optometrist or a dispensing optician.

There are a number of different bodies with an interest in this area, including the Irish Association of Dispensing Opticians and the Association of Optometrists of Ireland, and these have already been involved in the consultation process. Another body, the Federation of (Ophthalmic and Dispensing) Opticians, FODO, is relatively new to Ireland and was not involved in the process. FODO tends to represent large retailers such as Tesco, Boots and Specsavers. We want to ensure that in all cases sales assistants will be in a position to continue to do their job - namely, to assist people in choosing frames and process payments. We would be reluctant to allow the work of optometrists or opticians in dispensing prescriptions to be delegated to sales assistants. I can understand why big businesses might wish to delegate such work but we would not support them in that regard.