Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the case of a young constituent of mine in north Kildare. Céilí lives in Naas and she is not doing well with Covid-19. She is three years old and profoundly deaf. As a result of a heart condition, she cannot be fitted with cochlear implants, so she relies on two hearing aids instead. Without them, the only sounds she can hear are vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers. As she is young, her hearing aids need to be adjusted regularly and her hearing needs to be tested regularly. The moulds must be snug in her ears. Just like Goldilocks, Céilí needs her hearing aids just right. However, for months during the summer she could not get them adjusted because of the bizarre political decision made in March to redeploy the highly skilled paediatric audiologists on whom Céilí depends as Covid-19 contact trackers. I have heard of service dogs smelling the virus, but I have never heard of audiologists hearing the virus.

Children such as Céilí were told to go whistle and her hearing aids certainly did that. Her mother could hear the hearing aids whistling on the ground floor while she was on the first floor of their home. Céilí did not get an appointment until seven months later. Her mother is now seeking assurances that there will not be a repeat of this lack of service because Céilí is missing out on the tiny opportunity she has to learn how to speak in order that she can keep up with her peers. I spoke to her mother last night. She is frantic, and rightly so, because she knows her daughter needs to take this chance.

Will the Minister guarantee that these highly skilled and desperately needed audiologists will be free to work with children such as Céilí who need their specialist skills, rather than wasting those skills contact tracing? When I think of the thousands of people who volunteered under the Be On Call For Ireland initiative, it seems to me that the past six months have been wasted. To give Céilí the chance to speak, I ask the Minister to listen to what she and her parents are saying. Will he guarantee that the audiologists will be available to carry out this necessary fitting?

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