Mr. Brendan Lennon:

Yes, we have. In fact, only last week, I attended a session where we were presented with the beginning of a research project we are involved in to provide sight and hearing care to residents in a number of nursing homes as part of a preliminary research project. The figures presented by the lead researcher at that information workshop were pretty shocking. It was UK research rather than Irish research. It showed that 13% of residents of nursing homes had a hearing aid and were probably using it, 7% had normal hearing and 80% had hearing loss with no support. That is indicative of what the Deputy is talking about. One thing that might come out of a national hearing care plan, and has certainly come out of Covid and work we did, is that not all residents of nursing homes who have hearing loss are best provided for with hearing aids. Other, simpler devices could be used and we would like that to happen.