Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I will be taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Mary Harney, the Minister for Health and Children.

I am happy to have the opportunity to address the issue raised by Deputy Hayes. As the House will be aware, the Health Service Executive has the responsibility in law to manage and deliver health and personal social services or to arrange for them to be delivered on its behalf. This includes the delivery of audiology services and the prioritising and resourcing of the development of national community audiology services.

I am happy to explain the situation in the area of audiology services, as well as to convey the information provided by the HSE on the specific question raised by the Deputy. The national community audiology service provides free audiology services for all children, irrespective of parents' means, and for adults who have eligibility. For an adult to be eligible, he or she must be in possession of a current medical card. A total of 4,822 clinics were held in 2006 and 39,432 patients were seen.

The post of audiologist was advertised in May this year and interviews for the position were held in September. As a result of the interview process, a person was offered the post. Unfortunately, this person has declined the offer of the position. The HSE intends to advertise the post again. However, the HSE national management team has developed a financial break-even plan, aimed at remaining within its Vote for 2007, which includes a temporary pause in recruitment. This was reviewed by the team on 1 October. Based on this review, the HSE has decided that the financial situation is such that it is necessary and prudent to continue the overall pause in recruitment to the end of October.

The HSE hopes to establish a national review of audiological services to explore the delivery of audiology services in the most appropriate setting. Meanwhile, it has been working to achieve national standardisation of approaches to waiting lists and waiting times using a standardised template. Data based on this revised template is due to be reported at end of the first quarter of 2008.

A further imperative is to develop an integrated service at primary care level, involving audiologists, general practitioners, speech and language therapists, public health nurses and others, for those with hearing loss. The HSE also envisages the development of fully integrated audiology services, involving acute hospitals and community services, which will be delivered in the most appropriate setting. I will bring the issues the Deputy raised to the attention of the HSE.

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