Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The previous Minister for Health, now Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, said, "For people and patients, a key barometer of the success of our reform programme must be the performance of emergency departments and waiting lists." I cannot blame the Minister for Health for the previous Minister's failings, but I cannot absolve him because of the fact that he is a member of the Government which put a fierce emphasis on the pretence that it would address all of these issues. We are facing into the fifth year of the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government and things have got progressively worse. Even though the Minister changed the criteria for counting those on waiting lists and the time people were waiting, things are still getting progressively worse. The idea that the solution to overcrowding in emergency departments is the cancellation of elective surgery beggars belief. This is creating a major difficulty for individuals in terms of being told their elective surgery haas been cancelled and that they are back on waiting lists. If we could have clarity on what the Minister intends to do about this, we would appreciate it.

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