James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In many respects the question is disingenuous, given that Fianna Fáil was in power for so long and failed to do anything about it. At least the Government has tried to identify the problem and throw it open to the broad light of day so it can be dealt with in a fair and equitable fashion, in the same way as we dealt with the emergency department trolley waits and, more particularly, in the same way as we dealt with inpatient waiting times where the longest waiters are dealt with first after urgent cases and cancer cases have been dealt with. The real scandal is that more than 16,000 people have been waiting for longer than four years. Four years is twice the length of time the Government has been in power. I will keep my response short, as the Cathaoirleach wishes, but it is important to point out this problem was stewing away in the background being ignored by a government which held the reins for 14 years. We are not ignoring it; we are dealing with it.

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