I propose to take Questions Nos. 551 and 589 together.
I understand that my colleague Deputy James Reilly. Minister for Health, has arranged a meeting with the National Coalition for Vision Health early in the New Year.
The issues involved in eye health span a number of areas in the health sector with regard to access to treatment, patient safety and quality of care. There are a number of eye conditions which require specialist health services including cataract, refractive error, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age related macular degeneration. There are detection and treatment services available at present in community and acute hospital settings for these conditions.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) provides a sight testing service as part of the school health screening programme for children of primary school age. Children who are identified as requiring treatment or intervention are referred to the HSE ophthalmic service for follow up. Urgent cases are given priority and less urgent cases are dealt with as quickly as possible. Children between 12 and 16 years, whose parents are in receipt of a medical card, are eligible for HSE eye-care services when named on their parents' card. Other children between 12 and 16 years are eligible to be seen by the HSE ophthalmic service when there is a medical reason for the eye condition, rather than a refractive error.
The National Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Programme commenced at the beginning of this year.
In addition, there are a number of high level strategies which are relevant to the area of eye health, including Clinical Programmes; Public Health; Health Protection; Positive Ageing and Carers Strategies and Screening initiatives. A number of these strategies link with the Health Service Executive's Clinical Ophthalmology Programme.
The Government has continued to provide financial supports to those agencies involved in research, support and service provision for people with visual impairment in Ireland. The Government remains committed to the provision and development of vision services and supports through health prevention, screening and intervention policies and programmes, all of which contribute to address the priority goal of Vision 2020, namely to eliminate avoidable blindness in Ireland. In this context, it is not proposed to develop a separate national vision strategy.
