Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not believe people are deliberately creating waiting lists to pressurise people into paying out of pocket or to take up health insurance. Health insurance does not cover pre-existing conditions, so it would not cover it anyway in such cases. Quite frankly, waiting lists sometimes are badly managed. One has to drill down into them to really understand them. When I looked at some recently, I noted when it came to surgical procedures and day cases, people being seen within three months were being seen quicker. So, there were more people being seen quicker but then at the tail-end, there were people being put on the long finger for longer. That is a particular problem.

There are significant capacity constraints and it is for that reason the private sector is being employed.

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