Mr. Brendan Walsh:

This is certainly no defence, but County Tipperary is actually below the current average waiting times. It is certainly, though, still too long. We have people coming in and we are adding to the service. The service and my team are working extensive over time. I outlined earlier in reply to Senator Dooley that we are at risk with some of our workers that they may go over the number of hours they are allowed to work in a calendar year. We are, therefore, doing everything we can and we all have our shoulders to the wheel. I do sympathise, but, as I said earlier, I still have to be mindful that unless someone is a front-line worker in the HSE, we cannot give preference to one person over another because everybody has unique situations. I have nephews waiting for driver tests, and that is it, they must wait. We must be fair. We must fix the service for all. I cannot prioritise one individual over another. I do understand that this causes frustration because the Deputy has his constituents speaking to him about this situation. I apologise for that, but I give him my commitment that this service will be back to normal by the middle of next year.