Mr. Aaron Mullaniff:

I will quickly go through it. Senator Conway talked about the types of sight loss, essentially, what are we seeing coming through the door and what has been happening in the recent past. Age-related macular degeneration is the most common cause of vision impairment in people over the age of 50 in Ireland and it can be picked up through screening and detection.

The second most common condition that is now presenting that has come out of nowhere is glaucoma. Glaucoma accounts for 20% of all outpatient appointments. Essentially, the damage to the optic nerve that connects to the brain becomes an issue, but could be monitored by checking the pressure behind the eyes. Similar to AMD, it is also something that can be picked up through screening and detection and on a level, entirely preventable.

It is followed by cerebral vision impairment or neurological vision impairment where there is no eye disease per se but perhaps the brain is not firing in a way that it should and sending messages back from the optic nerve.

Diabetic retinopathy is also on the increase. We have 300,000 people with diabetes in Ireland and approximately 10% of those people will go on to form diabetic retinopathy or a rapid form of blindness or vision impairment. Next is cataracts and RP.

To speak to the consequences of not having vision strategy from our perspective, new referrals to the organisation are consistently on the increase. Between 2020 and 2023, our referrals increased by 70%. Avoidable blindness is what you would be seeking to target at the first opportunity. There are major inequities that will persist. Going back to the 37,00 people who are waiting, 49% are waiting over six months, 28% are waiting over a year and 16% are waiting over 18 months.

That is me waking up in the morning knowing there is something not right with my sight.