Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The preparation basically clears out a person's system. Maybe it is something the Minister can put on the agenda.

I have raised this before and it has to do with a societal issue, namely, obesity. I came across a situation where the waiting list for the obesity management clinic was five to six years. I raised it with the Taoiseach yesterday. Clearly the system is broken there. We know obesity is a huge problem within society. I could go into the challenges faced by people who have eating disorders and the problems related to staffing issues. The Taoiseach said he would have a look at this whole area and I urge the Minister to do so. I went to the Minister about this and the reply I got was that the constituent was told the waiting list was still five years. There is something wrong with the system if a person must wait five or six years. Five to six years is the waiting list to get into a clinic. Given that obesity is such a big issue in Ireland, maybe the Minister and his officials could take this up. It probably relates to extra funding or extra staff for the area but I think we all agree it is something that needs to be resolved.