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

The Deputy does not understand what I am saying but if he reads back over what he said, he might. It is important that when the Deputy uses the figures, he understands them. There may well be 400,000 people awaiting an appointment of some sort in our health service. Some of those people are waiting a few days or a few weeks. What matters to most people is how long they are waiting not what number they are on a waiting list. If one is No. 120 on a general surgery waiting list, one may be seen in a couple of weeks, whereas if one is No. 60 on a particular surgery list, one might be waiting years. What is most important in my view is ensuring that we reduce waiting times. One must bear in mind that every time we establish a new service, there is a new waiting list and that every time a new consultant is appointed, people will be waiting to see him or her. We have waiting lists now for services we were not providing a year or two ago. As such, this is a trickier matter than people may think.

In terms of the most up to date figures for Waterford, the total waiting list on 28 May for inpatient or day-case treatment is 4,210, of whom 1,195 have been waiting for less than three months.

A further 1,700 are waiting less than nine months, but there are more than 1,000 waiting more than nine months and 624 waiting more than 12 months. With respect to outpatient appointments, approximately 6,000 are waiting more than 18 months and we would expect all of them to have appointments by the end of this month. When we consider the figures in the round, 26,553 people are waiting for treatment but the largest single number of that group are waiting less than three months.

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