Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The CervicalCheck scandal shows the importance of vigilance in our efforts to improve the health of our country. Essential tasks for our health service are screening and disease prevention. Ensuring that we prevent unnecessary blindness is one example. Approximately 75% of sight loss is avoidable. At the end of last August, the inpatient waiting list for eye procedures was almost 12,500 people, the largest of any medical specialty. If sight-saving treatment is not delivered, it puts people at risk of irreversible damage to their vision.

Cataract surgery can restore impaired vision, but a survey by the Association of Optometrists Ireland published today shows incredibly long waiting lists across the country. The average waiting period is 28 months, with up to a shocking five-year wait in some parts of the country, such as west Cork. The survey also expressed concern about inconsistency and gaps in eye care services for children, in respect of whom there is an average waiting time of 15 months.

The opening last year of a new eye and ear unit in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital doubled the number of procedures it could perform. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, stated then that this would over time eliminate waiting lists in the Ireland East Hospital Group. That is welcome, but a nationwide programme is required. When will a plan for the rest of the country to deal with these unconscionable waits be rolled out? The lowest waiting time is in Sligo-Leitrim due to its award winning scheme. There have been repeated calls for the Sligo post-cataract scheme to be rolled out nationwide. Up to 20,000 procedures are carried out each year in Ireland, so this innovative scheme could radically reduce the number of appointments needed by people suffering blindness because of cataracts. The scheme is referenced in the programme for Government, the benefits are known by everyone and there have been repeated requests for it to be rolled out. As such, what will be done to increase the overall capacity for cataract operations in Ireland? We have an ageing population and we must be equipped to meet future health needs as well as the current health needs of people whose quality of life is immeasurably improved by having better vision after cataract operations. When will the proven Sligo model, which has had a positive impact on waiting lists in that area, be rolled out to every part of the country as promised in the programme for Government?

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