Mr. Mark Byrne:

There is a great stigma around the use and purchase of hearing aids. Some is financial but some is societal. Everyone can probably relate to the older person in their family who refuses to do something about their hearing. Sometimes they are the butt of the joke in the family and sometimes it is ignored. Society has work to do on this, and our organisation should lead in building awareness and acceptance of hearing aids as a great way of people staying fully involved in life and avoiding some of the health issues which Mr. Lennon touched on, such as cognitive decline. We see that as being gradual. We do not expect that overnight we can switch to UK levels of hearing aid use. Often on these things the UK can be seen as being five or ten years further on than we are, and we have some catching up to do. We think €5 million to €7 million would make a huge difference in the first year, with a longer term goal of building to the same rates as the UK. There is no reason we should be behind the UK in anyway in hearing aid usage.