Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 28 February 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Development of a National Hearing Care Plan: Chime

Mr. Brendan Lennon:

That is why 10,000 children are on the waiting list, even though about 95% of them do not have a hearing loss. It is because parents are vigilant as to how their children are functioning generally, and if they notice a deterioration, their child not being as attentive as they think they should be or their language not developing as they think it should, one issue that often comes to mind for them is that there may be an issue with the child's hearing. We are referred a lot of children who may be showing some challenge or delay in their development that is not caused by hearing loss. That is why, as I said, we have 10,000 on the waiting list, even though more than 90% of them do not have hearing loss. We need to identify those children earlier. We are not doing that, and that is a problem.

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