Mr. Chris White:

That is a really good question. The three questions the Senator has asked all highlight the lack of research available. Mr. Mullaniff and his team are doing comprehensive research on children being excluded from PE in school in conjunction with Dublin City University. It seeks to analyse the impact of schools saying that children with vision impairment cannot participate in PE on other morbidities and cardiovascular function. That is one study. A whole range of studies need to be done to inform the public health agenda which will then feed into the State's direction and concern about how people should mind their eyes. There is very little or no Government information about minding good eye health. We see these questions coming forward on the relationship to refractive error, dry eyes or other issues. The question about working outside is really interesting. As there has been no real research on that, we are not in a position to comment apart from saying that there is inadequate research in Ireland on causes of sight loss.