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

I am sure Deputy Keaveney would not want to be personally responsible for deciding which cases should be prioritised and which cases should not. I am not going to make such decisions either.

On the west and Galway specifically, one thing that might make sense is a national list. It does not make sense that children in the Galway region should be waiting longer than those in the Leinster region. I have asked my officials to discuss the issue with the HSE and the children's hospital group. Any time a low volume of surgery is being done, there are concerns about that and about whether any surgeon should be doing only a few types of operations every year. It is something I have asked my officials to investigate. As I said, everything is being done to double capacity for this type of surgery this year. London, Blackrock and other hospitals are being used. Everything that can be done, within reason, is being done to address this very serious problem.

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