Mr. Aaron Mullaniff:

I might take the first question. Resourcing has become a major stumbling block for our organisation. It is important that the committee knows that every day, 18 people begin to lose their sight in Ireland. If trends stay the way they are, one in five people in this room will be impacted by visual impairment at some point in their lifetime. Every 80 minutes someone begins to lose their sight. As an organisation, we have not been able to increase our funding in the previous 12 years, which is really worrying. The State gives about €125 for every person living with severe blindness and vision impairment in the country to NCBI in the form of a core grant. It is important that we put that on the record today because we are looking to do more around that piece.

Before I bring in Ms O'Dwyer, I want to acknowledge that the rate of referrals to our organisation is increasing year on year. We now have staff in the eye clinics so we are at the point of diagnosis. We are meeting day-old babies where previously we would not have been doing that. We have become really successful at that. At one point, it could take three and a half years for a child or young person to find their way to our services. Early intervention is so important in that regard. Now they are coming through when those kids are very small and we are being effective at that. We need to look at that whole piece from a funding and resource perspective.