David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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It does strike people as a bit bizarre that a country with a population of 5.2 million has 840,000 people on active waiting lists. That is acute waiting lists. We also have 240,000 people on community waiting lists, which do not get published. Members must submit parliamentary questions to get those responses. That is across a whole range of community services. That is a lot of people waiting for access to care.

I accept that the number of long waiters has come down. However, it does not make sense that in a country with a population of 5.2 million, there are 840,000 people on acute waiting lists and 240,000 on community waiting lists at a time when spending has increased by 50%.