Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister for Health, I would like to respond to Senator Craughwell, who I thank for raising this very important matter. At the outset, I wish to state that the Minister acknowledges that the provision of appropriate audiology services to children and adults is an important aspect of the healthcare system. The provision of such can prevent other health problems and promote greater well-being and community participation for both children and adults, as the Senator rightly outlined.

The Health Service Executive community audiology service provides a full range of hearing assessments to children free of charge. This includes screening, assessment, diagnostics and related investigations, treatment, rehabilitation and devices, and referrals to speech and language therapy and children's disability services, if required. The HSE community audiology service also offers assessment and rehabilitation for adult medical card holders. The services offered include advice on the use of assistive listening devices and the provision, fitting and repairs of appropriate hearing aids. In addition, the treatment benefits scheme administered by the Department of Social Protection provides a grant towards the purchase of hearing aids for those who have the necessary PRSI contributions to qualify. A dependent spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of a qualified person may also be entitled to assistance.

The national audiology review group report published by the HSE in 2011 identified shortcomings in audiology services available at that time, including access issues, poor information, inadequate staffing and unacceptable waiting times, and made recommendations to address these additional issues. The following recommendations of the national audiology review group report have been implemented: the appointment of a national and assistant national clinical lead; the roll-out of a national newborn hearing screening programme which checks whether babies have permanent hearing loss in one or both ears; the roll-out of the national bone-anchored hearing aid programme, which is available in six hospital sites nationally; the provision of bilateral cochlear implants at the national hearing implant and research centre at Beaumont Hospital; the introduction of a domestic MSc in audiology training programme at University College Cork; the publication of adult hearing aid best practice guidelines in 2017; and the roll-out of the national audiology clinical management system for community and acute services.

The implementation of the last recommendation is facilitating accurate tracking of patients, including for the purposes of waiting list management. In addition, the HSE now employs 21 more audiologists nationwide than it did in December 2019. It is important to recognise, therefore, that the landscape of the audiology service is in a different and much better space than it was when the report was issued back in 2011.

The World Health Organisation report on hearing, published in 2021, recognises that timely action is needed to prevent and address hearing loss in people across the entire course of their lives. It recommends that governments develop a comprehensive people-centred hearing care plan within their national health care plan.The Department of Health is consulting the HSE on the development of such a hearing care plan for Ireland.