Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Select Committee on Health

Estimates for Public Service 2022
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (Resumed)

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I would go further. It is perfectly reasonable for the Deputy to ask. I am asking the same question. It is something we are working on. We do not need to go over it again but, this year, we have been focusing on areas with the waiting list action plan. Next year, this is exactly where we need to go. A lot of money was invested in diagnostics and in community care, but the big focus was on the hospital waiting lists: scopes, inpatient and outpatient. There has been a lot of progress. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has been pushing on various areas and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has been pushing on other areas, including community therapies. What I can tell the Deputy is I am posing the same question. The Department will now seek to answer that in a useful way. Unfortunately, it is more difficult than any of us would like. I will give one example.