Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch di as ucht teacht isteach ar an gceist iontach tábhachtach seo.

I raise on the Adjournment this issue which relates to the Vision Impaired Service Providers Alliance, VISPA and services for persons with visual impairment. As the Minister will be aware, last week was World Vision Day and a group from VISPA marched to the Dáil and handed a letter in to the Taoiseach, and my party organised an information session with them on the previous evening.

The VISPA group is made up of four organisations. They are: the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, St. Joseph's Centre for the Visually Impaired and Fighting Blindness. They are trying to draw awareness to the issue of visual impairment.

Some 224,832 persons in Ireland are affected by sight loss and 12,995 persons in Ireland are classified as blind.

I want to recognise at this stage the input of Senator Conway to this debate and, certainly, last week as well. He is always vocal on this issue and I commend him on that.

The real financial cost of visual impairment and blindness in Ireland is estimated to be €386.09 million in 2010 and the charities mentioned provide essential services and lead innovation. For over 70 years, Ireland's vision rehabilitation needs have been met largely by charitable organisations and while they receive Government funds, their success depends on individual generosity and fund-raising. They provide essential services and lead innovation in the areas of education and retraining, mobility and independent living, social care and counselling, developing better assistive technologies, and also funding social and medical research on blindness.

A commitment was made in 2003. I refer to the WHO global resolution, supported by the Government in 2003 and 2009. In that commitment the Government committed to create a national co-ordinating committee by 2009 to implement the recommendations in Vision 2020, yet nothing has been established to date. Some 118 World Health Organisation member states have established national committees, as was indicated in that commitment.

The Government must honour the commitments in that document and it should do this as quickly as possible. The cost of sight loss survey indicates that the State's investment in vision health is more than €380 million, that is more than €1 million a day. This funding should be co-ordinated and delivered through a national vision strategy, which is another part of the Adjournment motion.

Included in a vision strategy would be the following: access to resources such as opthomology, which is under-funded, and critical planning.

With regard to rehabilitation, with the right support people affected by sight loss can maintain a good quality of life and this is very important. Research needs to be continually funded. Interestingly, although this area involves people with a disability, it also has great potential because it is the area in which some of the top research in the world is being done at present. Last week, I was told by the experts dealing with it that clinical trials would be imminent if funding was continued. If clinical trials can be put in place, not only would they provide great help to those suffering from loss of sight or blindness, but they would create the potential for jobs in the country because the cures that potentially could be developed on Irish soil would make us a world leader in the area. It would make no sense whatsoever to stop investment in research, and this investment should be increased. We also need to increase the awareness of people about the issues involved.

Is the Government willing to support VISPA's recommendations? It has called on the Government to work with all vision health stakeholders to develop and implement a vision health plan for Ireland. We cannot afford to wait to plan for the imminent vision health crisis. Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch don Aire agus tuigim go bhfuil a fhios aige go maith faoin gcás seo agus go dteastaíonn an tacaíocht seo. Tá mé ag tnúth leis an bhfreagra a bheidh le fáil ón Rialtas.