Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank the Minister of State for his reply and note the good work that has been done by various ophthalmologists and teams around the country. This is specific. It is about having eye care liaison officers appointed who can advise on the step-down services and how people can emotionally come to terms with the fact that they have been diagnosed with sight loss. It is an extraordinarily traumatic experience for people who have never experienced sight loss before. The cost of rolling out these seven eye care liaison officers is €560,000. In the overall scheme of a budget of €24 billion, it is not a huge amount. Can the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, arrange for Liam Woods and his team to meet the National Council for the Blind to discuss this matter further as a matter of urgency in the next couple of weeks? We are in the middle of the year and a further engagement to recalibrate, establish where we are and come up with a timeframe in which this service can be delivered is critical.