Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

The special delivery unit should not be taking credit for the massive reduction in the waiting lists. Many of those people would have been treated anyway, regardless of whether the special delivery unit was running. The idea that the special delivery unit decreased the number of people waiting from 14,000 to just short of 500 is not right. Many of those people would have received treatment anyway. If we are to have a serious benchmark of productivity in a unit we welcome and hope will succeed, we would want to start on a proper basis rather than trying to massage figures to show productivity is better than it is in reality.

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