Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the first instance, I thank Mr. Reid, Dr. Henry and Mr. Woods for supporting the eye clinic liaison officer and providing the funding so eye clinic liaison officers can be appointed to the various hospital groups around the country. I believe the recruitment process is ongoing.

Does the HSE have any comments on the proposals that have been made for dealing with the waiting lists in the eye care area by the North East Regional Integrated Eye Care, NERIEC, support team? Basically, it has introduced a novel approach to try to deal with eye care waiting lists. It has agreed to collaborate and to pool resources to come up with new ways of approaching it. Its members gave a presentation here a couple of weeks ago and they have asked to appear before this committee. It appears that some of the longest waiting lists are in the area of eye care, with approximately 500,000 people throughout the country on a waiting list for procedures and so forth. Has the HSE examined the proposals this group has made? What are its thoughts on them and is it considering funding it?