Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many of us take for granted the beauty that is the gift of hearing. It is something we rarely consider and something we even curse at times in these days of constant din. Dublin is a noisy city and Leinster House is a noisy place with the constant chatter, the whirr of air vents, the clinking of radiators and so forth. We try to drown much of this out and to ignore the noise of daily living - the busses passing the window, car horns, sirens and the crash and bang of works going on around us. Those of us with the gift of hearing take for granted the wonders it provides every day. We deal with so much background noise and intrusion that we too often fail to consider how lucky we are to be able to hear the voices of our loved ones every day, the splendour of music from voice and instrument and the lyrical use of language in daily conversation. It is impossible to describe just how much life is enriched by our ability to hear everything from a baby's cry to the grandest flourishes of Beethoven.

It is rare that we are given the potential to bestow such an amazing gift on a person. It is impossible for me to understand how it must really feel to go from a world of silence to a world of music, voices, clatter, bangs and cries of passion, anger and joy. It must in some way be a rebirth. Anybody who doubts this or believes me to be verging on hyperbole should go to their office and search "cochlear implant" on YouTube and watch one of the many videos of children experiencing the beauty of music or hearing their mother's voice for the first time. There is wonder on their faces and tears for their families, joyous in the knowledge that life has just become richer and more profound for their loved one. They have awoken to a world of sound. We can be dulled by the fullness of our senses, by the daily assault on them by the excess in this modern world. It brings to mind Patrick Kavanagh's poem "Advent", which speaks of the "...newness that was in every stale thing ... When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking". The gift of hearing is just that, a gift that will bring a newness to the world of these children which will enrich their lives forever.

This gift must be provided now for a generation of children, or their window of opportunity will be lost. That is why we raise this in the motion before the House. I commend the work of Happy New Ear, the group of families who have spearheaded a campaign to give their children and future children the gift of hearing. Their work is most valuable. They have done a great deal to bring the beauty of sound to their children's lives, and it is now our turn to help them. This is a realisable goal. The money required is relatively small and it is a positive investment in our young, the next generation of Irish people. The cost is just €12.58.

At present, children in Ireland receive only one cochlear implant, but international best practice recommends two. In many ways, this is a very mean practice in penny pinching. We have recognised that children should get cochlear implants, but not that we should bother to do it right. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing correctly. We know it is worth doing so, logically, two cochlear implants for each child is exactly what should happen. The cost of a single implant is between €18,000 and €20,000. Provision of only one implant limits a child's ability to distinguish where noises are coming from and his or her ability to hear in busy or noisy places. It is a start, but to really benefit a child two implants are required. They require the two implants sooner rather than later. There is only a limited period when the implants will be possible, due to the death of nerves in the ear which are needed for implantation. This is a race against time and every day we delay in changing policy to entitle children to two implants is a day closer to the time when the window closes and their hearing will be irreparably limited.

Current policy is that we must help these children, but only a little. That is not good enough and too many children have been already failed as their window for full hearing has closed. Two implants also allow for limited hearing when one implant malfunctions. At present, children with one implant in need of repairs are thrown back into silence and are doomed to experience this temporary silence intermittently throughout their lives.

In July, Sinn Féin hosted a briefing by Happy New Ear and Dr. Laura Viani, who is the surgeon with the cochlear implant programme in Beaumont Hospital. The parents met the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, on Tuesday and they spoke to the Oireachtas committee on health. Dr Viani warned that unless these implants are connected in the early years, by the age of seven or eight years the operation will be ineffective. After that, children born and raised in silence never speak and that is a huge difficulty which adversely impacts on the rest of their lives. She explained that international best practice calls for bilateral implants to be provided. This significantly improves their quality of life. For the child it is a "journey out of silence." Dr. Viani posed the question, "If you are told you need glasses would it make sense to give you only one lens?" It is so with the children who need bilateral cochlear implants.

It is detrimental for the child to go through the trauma of the three-hour operation for only one implant.

Two of the parents warned of the stress to their children when their single cochlear implants broke and they were returned to a silent world. This caused the children huge distress. This is not just an issue of doing the right thing by these children. If looked at coldly, it is an economic issue. Like many health issues, the cost of not addressing it far outweighs the cost of meeting it head-on and investing in a solution. Children who are deaf require greater educational support and special care packages and often suffer serious psychiatric and depression problems later. They also have difficulty getting work. With cochlear implants, they can make a positive contribution to society and find it easier to get employment. The issue is now on the agenda of the Government thanks to the efforts of the parents. As political representatives, our responsibility is to support their efforts and to do all we can to ensure the Government takes the right decision in the upcoming period.

In the Sinn Féin pre-budget submission we showed how bilateral cochlear implants could be paid for before considering the more long-term saving the State would make in the care and support needed for children who are deaf as they grow up and enter adulthood. We know the Government has no interest in introducing fair tax-and-spend models as represented by our budget. We know it likes to go for the soft targets and cut from those who have nothing to give, but its members should listen in respect of this issue at the very least. A sum of €12 million could and should have been found. This is too important an issue for too many children and their families. When we have a solution to a terrible problem in our grasp, when we know it is possible, when we know it can be done and all we need is the political will of those in power, it is harder to take when it is not done. I am not in the habit of applauding this Government but if it can meet this demand then that is the only reaction I could give. This is such a simple case of the right thing to do not being done. Here is the opportunity; the Minister should do it.

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