Vol. 396 No. 5
47 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the claims made by the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, Dublin 2, that because of insufficient funding, children would remain deaf unnecessarily and elderly people would stay temporarily blind; if it is intended to provide additional funding for the hospital; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I wish to inform the Deputy that I am aware of statements attributed to spokespersons at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital regarding the matters mentioned. I wish to point out that statements such as these cause unnecessary worry and stress to patients and their relatives. The impression given by the statement on deafness is quite incorrect. Children waiting for treatment of "glue ears", of which there are only 20 at this hospital and not 200 as claimed, generally only suffer from minor hearing impairment. The Deputy will also probably be aware that before a patient is ready for a cataract operation it is necessary in most cases to allow the cataract to ripen or mature to a stage where it is ready for surgery.
On the issue of funding for the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital I would like to inform the Deputy that as part of the allocation of an additional £15 million to health services in August 1989, £200,000 was made available to this hospital. This money allowed for an additional 250 cataract operations to be undertaken before the end of the last year.
Furthermore, the fund allocated to the Eye and Ear Hospital for 1990 have increased by £0.4 million from the original 1989 allocation of £3.6 million. Officers from my Department are monitoring the financial situation at the hospital on an on-going basis. I am glad to report that the hospital is maintaining the high level of surgical activity achieved in the second half of 1989.
