Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Essentially, what this proposal does is create clarity as to what the different professions do. The dispensing optician is the person who dispenses a person's glasses, whereas an optician, which is a variant of the term "optometrist", is the person who carries out eye examinations and produces prescriptions, which use figures such as -1.00 or -4.50 to indicate whether dioptres of nearsightedness. We are not aware of any specific patient safety issues. The purpose of the regulations is address an issue that could potentially arise if people were to avoid registering and were to use the title of "optician" and start prescribing or carrying out eye examinations. It clears up a technicality.