David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will move on to performance and outputs. When we are talking about productivity what people will measure is, obviously, what we get at the other end of the investments we make. Since 2019, there has been a 50% increase in health spending, which we all welcome. Of course, additional funding will be needed over the next number of years in areas as well. One of the measurements is waiting lists. The waiting lists have essentially remained static since 2019. I refer to all of the correspondence I have seen. Our guests might recall that we got very extensive correspondence that was exchanged between the Department of public expenditure and reform and the Department of Health in respect of health budgeting. One of the issues raised in that correspondence was that there has been a 50% increase in funding since 2019 but a marginal decrease in the active waiting lists. Mr. Watt outlined that the number of people waiting longer than 12 months has come down, and that is welcome, but the active waiting lists have remained static. In fact, in July they were up by 8,000 people. Can Mr. Gloster explain why we have had a 50% increase in funding but waiting lists have remained static? Can that be described as productive and getting bang for buck for the investments that we are making?