Fiona O'Malley (Dún Laoghaire, Progressive Democrats)

In 2002 there were waiting lists of between two and five years. Whatever else one can say, nobody wishes to see a patient waiting longer than necessary. The way the National Treatment Purchase Fund has operated has been phenomenally successful. It provides choice for patients and, more importantly, it means the patient is relieved of the painful symptoms they had to endure.

It is telling that the new patient treatment register recently wrote to 11,397 patients and that 8,042 of that number did not respond. That is extraordinary. I am glad the National Treatment Purchase Fund will examine this. One would expect people on waiting lists to grasp the opportunity to have their ailment treated. I commend the amendment to the House.

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