Most Senators welcomed the amendments to section 48 of the principal Act during Second Stage. This section concerns the provision of treatment and the prescribing and administration of drugs. The Bill achieves a satisfactory balance in this area in allowing optometrists carry out their professional function while stopping short of facilitating medical treatment by them of an injury or disease of the eye. The Senator made the point that the impression may be given but the Act is very specific in forbidding and prohibiting optometrists from attempting to make a medical diagnosis. It places an obligation on them to refer any problems to an ophthalmologist for the disease to be treated. This will be enforced by Government amendment No. 6 arising from the consultations in which I engaged before Second Stage with the college to make sure, ar eagla na heagla, there would not be any doubt about the matter. There cannot be any suggestion that the Bill facilitates the treatment of medical conditions pertaining to the eye by optometrists.