Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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298. To ask the Minister for Health if he will update the national physical and sensory disability database in order to record information on persons who are over 66 years of age, as currently the database does not record information for such persons, even though 60% to 70% of the deaf and blind population are estimated to be over 65 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27004/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The National Physical and Sensory Disability Database was set up in 2002. It is managed by the Health Research Board on behalf of the Department of Health. Registration on the database is voluntary and the database is not intended to provide any definitive epidemiological statement on the number of people with a particular type of disability. Currently, individuals over the age of 65 years are not eligible for registration on the National Physical and Sensory Disability Database. At the time the National Physical and Sensory Disability Database was set up there was a clear delineation between services funded by the disability programme and services funded under the elderly programme. This funding model drove the decision to limit voluntary registration on the database to people under 65 years and under.

The establishment of an information infrastructure for the disability services programme is under consideration at the moment and as part of this initiative, a number of issues, including the registration of people over the age of 65 on a disability database, will be considered.