Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

A lady came to my office a number of weeks ago in respect of this very issue. I do not deal with it very much in terms of constituency work, but she showed me a letter she received from the HSE which stated how long she would wait for cataract surgery. It is a routine operation. I could not believe what she showed me. The letter stated that she would be waiting up to five years for a routine appointment to see a specialist. I am no medical expert, but it was obvious that the woman's eyes would seriously deteriorate well before the four or five year wait was over. I advised her that she could not wait that long and had to consider alternatives. It is incredible that somebody would have to wait so long for a routine appointment to address the deterioration of her eyes.