Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)

Mr. Gloster is very welcome back for a second week in a row. The Minister and her team are also very welcome. I have two specific questions. First, I note the policy around insourcing is to end by the end of June next year. I am asking this question very much from a regional perspective. What steps is the Minister looking to take? My concern is that the insourcing will come to an end but that we will then end up in a position, particularly in the midlands, where there will be greater outsourcing of those services for hospitals. Our hospital capacity is not building up when the insourcing is coming to an end; it is simply being outsourced to another area. I ask this question from a very geographical perspective. At the moment, it is not possible to get a bone set in the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar. One has to go to Tullamore, which is an 80 km round trip. This is a barrier to some people, no less than the geographical distances the previous Deputy mentioned. Regarding these regional inequalities, we know in a lot of cases that people in the regions, in the midlands, wait longer for treatment than people in other areas. It is on the dashboard. I had a look at it while we have been sitting here. In some areas, regional hospitals are performing incredibly well, but in other areas, they are not. Specifically in this area, then, what does the Minister intend to do to level these disparities?

Second, and I raised this question with Mr. Gloster last week, our gynaecology waiting lists have increased 13% in the past five years since I first started asking about them. Very concerningly, there are 355 children waiting less than six months, and a total of 567 children, of which 18 are waiting more than 18 months for gynaecology appointments. Of the over 7,000 women waiting longer than six months, what specific action does the Minister intend to take in this regard?