Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I raise this issue on foot of a news report from last week or the week before concerning a young person who had a cochlear implant inserted and who had to wait four years to have a second implant put in. The report indicated that Beaumont Hospital made a submission to the Department of Health for funding in order to do both ears at one time when treating a young person.

It seems highly unusual and unacceptable to me that a hospital would carry out an operation to implant one device into a child's ear yet wait four years to do the second ear. By then the child will have developed and his or her hearing will have developed in certain ways. The time between both procedures is not best practice. On making inquiries it turned out that such delays happen but that is unacceptable. It makes sense to treat both ears at the same time. I am sure that there is a waiting list to get the first treatment done. It makes medical and economic sense to implant a device in both ears at the one time thus leading to a greater improvement in the child's hearing. This is a no-brainer. No one should have to wait years to have a second device implanted and I hope that the Minister of State will have a positive response.