Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The most important development for 2015, and for 2014, was the allocation of significant additional resources for the Health Service Executive. I understand people would like it to have even more resources, as would I, but we were able to devote very significant additional resources last year in Supplementary Estimates, and for this year as well.

As the Deputy stated, the survey shows that for certain outcomes Ireland is performing well compared with other countries. For example, we score very well on patients' access to medications and to prevention services such as vaccinations and smoking cessation programmes. We also perform well on patient outcomes such as cancer survival and reducing deaths from strokes and heart attacks. Our infant mortality rate, thankfully, is one of the lowest of all the countries in the survey. However, the Deputy is correct that we have fallen from 14th to 22nd out of 37 countries this year, and it is a very concerning matter. The main reason given in the report for that is waiting times, health insurance status and Ireland's legal position on abortion because much of the report is compiled from a combination of statistics, patient polls, including of people who use the health services, and independent research. It is carried out by a private company, Health Consumer Powerhouse Ltd. The authors of the report acknowledge that this fall in ranking is mainly due to their decision to exclude any published official waiting list data in the analysis. They base their conclusions only on the result of their commissioned surveys of patient organisations.

I would expect to hear from the patient organisations that, in terms of experience and all the issues we have discussed in this House, waiting times are a major issue and concern. That is why in the HSE plan the Minister for Health has committed to addressing waiting lists-----

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