James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I will be very clear. The special delivery unit was formed in June and became operational in September 2011. At that time the number of patients waiting longer than 12 months if they had not been treated by the end of December 2011 would have been 14,000. I have no doubt that had the special delivery unit not taken the action it had, we would have many thousands of people waiting longer than a year for treatment. That is unacceptable and it is inequitable. It is not nice for anybody to wait but it is far fairer that many people wait a few extra days as opposed to some people having to wait several months or years.

I will relate something I did not have to hand last night. Since the beginning of January this year there have been, on average, 50 fewer people on trolleys every day. That is six weeks of ongoing, consistent and measurable improvement in the number of people on trolleys. There are still far too many people on trolleys but we are making progress despite a reducing budget. I do not believe any other health service in the Western world has improved quality of service - as shown by the stroke units coming on stream and the improvements they have already brought about - against a backdrop of reducing budgets. I congratulate all those involved.

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