Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. I think it is fair to say that everyone recognises the challenges that exist in our health service. Since 2008 the budgets of the Department of Health and the HSE have been cut by €3.8 billion and there has been a very significant reduction in staffing levels. Despite that, the Department of Health and the health services are increasing their treatment of patients. That is the backdrop here. Some 115,000 more patients are being treated in our hospitals today than was the case four years ago; so much more work is being done.

The other aspect clear in today's figures is that the emergency department workload has significantly increased which is putting pressure on elective surgery as it always has done in the past. There is no doubt that there are challenges here, but the truth is that reform in the delivery of the health service remains the only route to resolve these issues. We need to move to systems that can better manage the flow. We still have problems with that. Too many people are turning up in the emergency department when they could be treated in primary care and the strategy is to roll out primary care.

We still have problems with discharges from our hospitals and there is also a strategy to address that. The reform plan is clearly on the right tracks, but there are difficulties as everyone acknowledges. These figures show some areas of significant improvement. As the Deputy can see, the waiting lists for outpatients are much improved and the waiting lists in emergency departments are much improved, but there are other areas where there are continuing challenges.

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