Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Many people use private operators, that is, the optician on the high street. They serve the public with the PRSI scheme and so on. They struggle to get staff. Across Cork a half dozen optometrist posts are currently advertised and, for as many again, the advertisement has been taken down because they have not been able to recruit anybody. Locum cover is extremely difficult to get.

Fewer than 30 people graduate from the one course each year. Very often, they are in direct competition with the UK for those people, so the pool of qualified people is very small each year. It is good to hear the Minister has been making inquiries about qualifying more people. Will he elaborate on that? We need to see more people being qualified and available to serve people in the community.

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