Mr. Aaron Mullaniff:

As chief services officer, I am looking around the committee room and asking myself what the committee really needs to know and is there a topic that have could sufficient influence to galvanise the joint committee, the Department of Health and the HSE around the challenge that Vision Ireland faces every day in delivering life-changing interventions to babies, children, adults, older adults and families who are being increasingly impacted by vision impairment and blindness in the absence of any agreed national vision strategy or blueprint. The theme of my statement is, "Why this committee must care". In particular, what should motivate the committee to support the work of Vision Ireland in the short term, while ensuring that all committee members commit to the critical need for a national vision strategy and commit to put it in their manifestoes across the lifetime of the next Government?

That said, I wish to speak about what it is like to live with vision impairment and blindness in Ireland. I wish to caveat this statement by acknowledging that I am acutely aware that I am not visually impaired or blind. I am not the parent or loved one of someone who is has been impacted by blindness. I say this because I want to speak to those insights and the realities and facts of living with vision impairment and blindness. On one level, I am not seeking to marginalise anyone who has been impacted by vision impairment or blindness any further but I do want to address that upfront.

I want the committee to get a clear understanding of the challenge Vision Ireland faces, particularly the challenge the Government has on its hands, given the increasing prevalence of vision impairment and blindness in this country. On the theme of prevalence and prevention in particular, the committee should know that many people are completely indifferent to vision impairment and blindness and indeed to our solutions. In some ways, Vision Ireland's work will never be done, even after 93 years. This is despite the fact that every day, 18 people in Ireland begin to lose their sight. This is someone's mother, father, son or daughter, friend or neighbour. Vision impairment could affect each and every one of us, yet research shows that many of us are optimistic about the probabilities of chance. This is called optimism bias, and it is why many of us do not safeguard our own health. There are 15 people in this room and at least one in five people will be affected by vision impairment and blindness during their lifetime. Between 50% and 70% of blindness is entirely preventable through early detection and treatment

As my colleague said, sight is the sense people most fear losing, yet, Ireland has a really poor record when it comes to looking after eye health.

Only one in two people report that they get their eyes checked regularly.

The number of people experiencing vision impairment and blindness increased by 439% between census 2016 and census 2022. The committee heard me correctly - an increase of 240,000 people. Ireland has one of the lowest number of eye doctors in Europe. Even Greece has three eye doctors for every 10,000 people. Ireland has not quite got one. According to the Irish Medical Organisation, the recommended number of consultant posts in ophthalmology is 147 but, currently, we only have 41. There are 37,880 people waiting for their first outpatient appointment today, knowing that there is something not quite right with their sight. Some 6,000 of the 37,000 people are waiting over 18 months and as a consequence of a broken healthcare system, those individuals and those children are likely to experience a significant deterioration in their sight where Vision Ireland will ultimately pick up the pieces.

If one receives a letter of appointment today as a public patient seeking cataract surgery, it is likely one's appointment date will be some time in 2027 or 2028. If one has the right level of private health insurance, one can have one's cataract seen in approximately six weeks. Until 2020 the majority of patients in this country went through the diagnosis alone without being offered any support.

The research suggests that on average children with vision impairment or blindness have six fewer friends than their sighted peers. Blindness and vision impaired students make up the smallest cohort of all students with disabilities in higher and further education in Ireland. Those same students are more likely to undertake a degree in arts, humanities or business than the general student population and are half as likely to complete a degree in science, engineering or maths - the so-called skills of the future. Earlier intervention is key and Vision Ireland might be a child, young person, mum or dad's only source of professional help outside of a broken system.

Last year the European Disability Forum described Ireland as leading the "hall of shame" by having the lowest number of people with disabilities in employment in Europe. Some 75% of people with vision impairment and blindness of working age are not working in this country. That is too much untapped potential. Our services supported 44 into employment last year and saved 180 jobs, but that is not our job.

Four out of five adults with vision impairment or blindness are not currently meeting the national physical activity guidelines. One in two teenage girls experiencing vision impairment or blindness is categorised as at cardiovascular risk by the age of 13. Older adults with vision impairment or blindness are ten times more likely to experience depression, isolation and loneliness and three times more likely to experience hip fractures and earlier admission to long-term care.

The HSE will provide Vision Ireland with approximately €23 to support each person who is living with visual impairment or blindness in Ireland in 2024 but it has not significantly increased its grant to Vision Ireland services in almost a decade despite the fact that we are doing more than ever.

The total economic cost of vision impairment and blindness in 2022 was €3.3 billion. People cannot afford to wait any longer for fair and accessible eye care or vision rehabilitation in this country and that the lack of a cohesive strategy will mean further burdens on the Exchequer and the healthcare system unless we take action.

Almost 300,000 people experiencing vision impairment and blindness in Ireland are the State's constituents, and not Vision Ireland’s, nor can we truly represent those 300,000 people here today. Through its services and interventions, Vision Ireland has been trying to do something about every one of these challenges but now we need the committee's help. In the last six minutes I have provided it with 40 reasons this committee should care enough to develop and implement a national vision strategy over the lifetime of the next Government.