Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter which is an important one for the country as a whole and, in particular, for the health service. Since the start of 2014 we have seen an almost continuous increase in waiting lists both for outpatient consultations and for scheduled day case and inpatient procedures. The latest figures for April are remarkable because they show that for outpatients, there are now 412,422 on the waiting list. Of those, 83,347 are waiting more than a year while more than 11,000 are waiting more than two years. A total of 2,166 are waiting more than three years and a most unfortunate 778 people are on the outpatient waiting list for more than four years.

A total of 3,879 children are waiting more than a year in the children's hospital group alone, that is, Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals. That is a doubling of the number in the past year and obviously there are more children waiting to be seen in other hospitals across the country. The number of outpatients waiting more than a year is up 16,725, or 25.1%, since the start of 2015 alone. The year-on-year figures show a jump of 60,601, or 266.4%, for the numbers waiting more than a year.

For inpatient and day case procedures, there are now 67,165 on the list, with 27,260 waiting longer than the internationally accepted benchmark of six months. A total of 9,433 are waiting more than a year and 361 of these are in the children's hospital group.

The Government set a target for children of 20 weeks. Yesterday's HSE performance report for February showed that the target was being reached in a miserable 56.2% of cases, compared to 84% in February 2014. The following hospitals did not even get half way to the children's 20 week target in February - Beaumont Hospital at 48.1%, Cavan General Hospital at 34.1%, University Hospital Waterford at 48.9%, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, at 41.1% , the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital at 47.2%, Letterkenny General Hospital at 47.2% and Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, at 47.8%. In fairness to the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, he said that things would get worse before they got better. Obviously, they have got much worse.

As a Kildare Deputy, I am relieved to see that Naas General Hospital's figures have not risen as much as many others, but many Kildare people go to Tallaght hospital and the figures for that hospital are truly appalling. There are 30,713 people waiting for an outpatient appointment in Tallaght hospital. It is not the worst in the country overall, but 9,825 of those people, almost one in three, are waiting more than a year. That is an increase of 1,303 since January and an increase of 5,235 in a year. It has more than doubled since April 2014.

When will things get better? All the Minister appears to have done is scrap his predecessor's target times. Obviously more resources are required. The Minister told us he had achieved a realistic budget last October but he has since required an additional €74 million in funding to confront the realities of overcrowding in emergency departments. Will the Minister be seeking a further Supplementary Estimate to his realistic budget, as he described it, to address these appalling waiting times and when can we expect it?

The difficulty is that real human beings are enduring real hardship and suffering as a result of the bogus budgets the Department of Health has brought before this House in each of the past two years.

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