Mr. Brendan Lennon:

Yes, there is no doubt that modern digital hearing aids are much better than the analogue hearing aids available 15 or 20 years ago. The price of hearing aids also varies because some have features like noise cancelling or noise reduction that work very well in different environments. The more basic hearing aids do not have such programmes. Overall, 85% of the people who are fitted with hearing aids say that their quality of life has improved and the hearing aids meet their expectations, while two thirds say they wish they had got them earlier.

We mentioned the TILDA study from 2017, which was published in 2018. It found that only one in five people in Ireland who had significant hearing loss had hearing aids. When we looked at the wider numbers we were able to see that at that time we were prescribing at below half the rate at which the UK was prescribing. TILDA also noted in the responses given by participants that people tended only to get hearing aids as a last resort.

We agree that there are two key pieces here. The first is that the wider public have timely access to hearing aids and other supports in respect of their hearing loss. The second is for the Department to consider an education, as opposed to commercial, piece as part of its national hearing care plan. That would include making information available to the public and encouraging people to consider whether their hearing has deteriorated and to take action. Key key health professionals along that pathway have a role to play, in particular GPs. In the past, we have found that GPs are often reluctant to encourage their patients to consider hearing aids. Some 70% of the people who need to get hearing aids have to find the money to buy them, while the remaining 30% have medical cards. GPs are, therefore, often reluctant to tell people to go out and buy something that might cost them €3,000 or €4,000. That is why we need more affordable and accessible pathways for people to access hearing aids and similar supports to be provided in a timely fashion at an earlier point in the pathway. That is the key.

If people wait to take action, two challenges arise. First, they may already be in a position where they are experiencing depression and a level of cognitive decline that they should not be experiencing. Second, when they get hearing aids, having waited anything from five to ten years, it is much more difficult to adjust to and habituate to the hearing aids because, in many cases, people's brains have forgotten sounds and no longer recognises them. When hearing aids are fitted and they may find themselves all of a sudden asking what a certain noise is or saying they cannot stand a door creaking or the noise of a fridge. All that is because they have not heard these noises for many years, so it will take a lot more persistence and effort to adjust to wearing a hearing aid. The earlier a plan is rolled out, the better it will be for everybody.