Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not disagreeing with Senator Crown. I hate to disagree with him, the man is a medical genius. However, I have some concerns about this amendment and I cannot support it. However, I think the Minister of State should certainly take on board the point made. We may be talking about the question of training opticians in a different way. We may have to introduce a different code of practice, but to put an onus like this on opticians at this point would create the potential for negligence where people possibly do not have the qualifications or know-how to be able to identify everything the Senator suggested. At the age of 18, my late mother benefitted from the quick thinking of an optician. She lost an eye because of cancer and, thankfully, did not succumb to that disease until 54 years. Senator Crown has shown such leadership with regard to cancer research and treatment and I bow to his prowess. An issue could arise if, as the Senator rightly pointed out, the ophthalmologists are the people who ultimately need to see these patients if they are at risk. If opticians have the potential to let something slip between the system, this is an issue of training and codes of conduct. It needs to be training first, followed by a code of conduct, followed by statutory responsibility rather than just statutory responsibility if it is the case that people do not have the required training beyond checking a patient's sight for Specsavers or whoever. I hope Senator Crown does not think I am not supportive because I am, but I cannot support the amendment in its current form.