In my capacity as the chief executive of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, I thank Deputies and Senators for inviting us to this afternoon's meeting. We have had some interaction with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government over several years. Part of the general thrust of the council is to seek a general environment in which vision impaired people can live as integrated and included members of society. As the Chairman indicated, we have raised certain issues with the Department. The first of our four areas of primary concern is the need for an overarching vision impairment strategy. If such a strategy were adhered to throughout the Government sector, across all Departments, it would lead to an improvement in cost-effectiveness. After I have finished, Ms Kouzi will discuss our second priority, which is the library service. The committee will learn that the problem with the service is that it is particularly segmented and separated. Ms Howley will then speak about our third priority, which is the concept of shared spaces. The fragmented approach to that concept is incurring retrofitting costs, and so on. I will conclude by speaking about our fourth priority, which is accessible voting, and wrapping up on behalf of the council.
We have been toing and froing on many of these issues. The library service and the shared spaces concept are matters for the local authorities. Everybody sees such concepts as commendable and worthy of investment, but doing something about them always seems to be within somebody else's remit or province. That is why we ask the committee to consider a recommendation that may be slightly outside its remit. We think it is tangential to what we are talking about. We call on the committee to make a submission to the Minister for Health and Children, requesting that the concept of a national vision strategy be promoted. We estimate that the number of vision impaired people in the country — we are talking about low vision, as distinct from total sight loss — will increase over the next few years, up to 2031. When the figures for blindness and low vision are added together, the predicted increase will be in excess of 300%. As people live longer, their sight deteriorates. We have an aging population with some useable residual vision. We are trying to strive for joined-up services, including remedial, preventive and treatment services. As members of society and citizens, people with vision impairments are also supported by the State through the provision of lifestyle, cultural and other enhancing services. Ireland signed up to the concept of a national vision strategy at World Health Organisation level in 2003. It was endorsed with a welcoming heart. We went back in 2009, when everyone else was signing up, to say "you are doing great, lads, we will all get there eventually". Some 120 countries have signed up to date. Ireland has not yet prepared a national vision strategy, however.
All four of the issues on which we will focus, including the need for a vision strategy, are cost-neutral. I appreciate that members may be sceptical when they hear the term "cost-neutral" — they may have used it themselves while knowing it usually means something else. When we have more joined-up policies and practices, people will find that major costs are not associated with them. The national vision strategy will ensure that services are provided to vision impaired people as part of a more holistic, thought-out and planned approach. That will result in a saving to the State. I have set out the council's request that the members of the committee should endorse the concept, as presented to them in our submission, that they should write to the Minister for Health and Children to encourage her to develop a vision strategy around our group on behalf of the people we represent and the State as a whole. I have argued that the provision of such services would be cost-effective.
I invite my colleague, Ms Kouzi, to speak about the main item on our agenda — the mainstreaming of our library service, which we are obliged to run from private funding. It seems to be the responsibility of everyone else. It goes from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport and back again.