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Seanad
‹ An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

Low vision and hearing strategy

Summary

Senator Mullen praised the project, and the Acting Leader then confirmed she would welcome a debate on low vision and low hearing and noted related work with Chime and ongoing consultation.

It is a great project.

Comment on this

The work that goes into the delivery of the programme is also phenomenal and going there is a good way to show our courtesy to all the people who participate in it. Senator Conway also looked for a debate on low vision and low hearing. I think the Minister would welcome that opportunity because she is doing work with Chime already on the strategy on hearing. I would say she is doing work on vision as well. It would be a great opportunity. She is doing consultation at the moment so it would be great for us to hear where the strategy is going in relation to low vision and low hearing.

Senator Sarah O'Reilly brought up the scam ads and referenced Senator Scahill who raised it yesterday on the Order of Business. I hear her point about the fines sometimes not matching what is being taken away. I hope the Senator has gone down to the committee to ask some of those questions of Meta directly. I acknowledge the success of the Junk Kouture children from Bailieborough who had great success and are going to the world finals of the competition. The best of luck to them in that.

When Senator Mullen was out of the room, I referenced his support for the three bogs in east Galway, along with Senator P. J. Murphy. I also hear very clearly what he is saying about wanting a clear breakdown of how many vacant posts there are, what we are doing on recruitment, whether the Government is aware of it, how we are addressing it and whether we are ready for the EU Presidency so our first official language is covered comprehensively during the length of that, as well at all occasions taking place across the EU. We are very proud of our language but we need to ensure the posts are filled and see what we are doing to achieve that. I think the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, might be here later today and he supports this, but we need to know what we are doing comprehensively on this.

Senator Dee Ryan raised everything to do with health and the mid-west. Senator Conway is nodding in support of her on that. She raised the 44-acre Raheen site and where we are with that. There are 440,000 people in the mid-west and we need to know what options are being picked. Are we looking at option C? Is it a new model 4 with an accident and emergency department? Senator Ryan also talked about dentistry services and children exiting sixth class and going into first year having missed a critical intervention. That leads on to orthodontics and everything else. The Senator's point is very well made in inviting the Minister for Health here to discuss these services. If the Minister were to come in, we would all be looking for all our REOs in relation to capital projects, how they are progressing and whether they are moving at pace for delivery. The final piece the Senator raised was on FND. I did not realise its sufferers had the second-highest number of neurology referrals. There is a question about how they fit within the strategy for community neurorehabilitation and whether there is the right and proper allocation of posts, as well as ring fencing within the community neurorehabilitation strategy.

There is a lot of work there for the Minister for Health and the Minister for Transport. I have no doubt it is all noted. I am sorry if I went on for a long time but it is important to respond to everybody.

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