Mr. Bernard Gloster:

Before that, I will make a comment to be helpful to the Deputy. The current waiting lists for all types of care are managed essentially by using two types of processes by the consultant doctors. One of these is clinical prioritisation, which means that they will be constantly reviewing the scale of prioritisation of the person's need. The other is chronological scheduling, which looks at the length of time the person is on the list. Very often, there is balancing between those two.

The HSE has two streams of resourcing and funding for tackling the waiting list. The first is what is built into the annual service plan. That sets out the number of people who are to be removed from waiting lists. It tries to anticipate the number of people who will come onto the list. The second is the waiting list action plan, which is the targeted, dedicated fund for the year. It is monitored and measured every month by the Department. In the waiting list action plan, the HSE has a portion of funding to operate initiatives to take people off the list. The National Treatment Purchase Fund has its own dedicated pathway for certain procedures. I would nearly let the National Treatment Purchase Fund decide whether it is time to revisit any particular access schemes. At the moment, the sole focus is to maximise every single pathway that is available in order to reduce the length of time a person spends on the waiting list.