Mr. Matt Ronan:

If I could contribute, a very well established and noted Irish academic spoke in the vicinity of this House in recent days. His specialty is research on age-related macular degeneration, which is the degeneration of the back part of the eye. It is a leading cause of blindness in Ireland in the over-50s. He has studied the condition for years and is one of the world's leading researchers in this area. He presents his research internationally and is based in Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT. He has estimated that the cost of providing the correct level of supplementation with carotenoids, which are his specialty, for this single condition free of charge to sufferers of this cause of blindness in Ireland would be €93 million over five years. The State would save €210 million over the same period because the treatment, the only recourse people have as the disease progresses, is enormously expensive. He reckons that blindness costs Ireland €135 million per annum, which is a significant cost to the State. There is an enormous cost-benefit to the State of encouraging people to take these types of supplements. It helps to prevent the decimation of their quality of life while also avoiding the excessive and extreme cost of trying to save the vision of the people in question. If we were to choose one product or one area, it would have to be age-related macular degeneration because it of the debilitating effect blindness has on quality of life. The State is being lumbered with an enormous cost to try to make up the shortfall when medical intervention becomes necessary.