Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----a great deal of progress is being made. The Government provided €51.4 million to deliver on the Minister's target of maximum waiting times of 15 months by the year end, and significant progress is being made. As of 3 December last, a total of 23,924 outpatient appointments and 3,549 inpatient or day case procedures are required to achieve the 15-month maximum waiting time by the end of December, that is, 27,473 in total. To put that in context, on 12 November 2015, the equivalent numbers were 39,374 for outpatients and 7,231 inpatients or day cases, or 46,605 cases in all.

The moratorium has been lifted and very significant numbers of nurses and medical personnel are employed now who were not employed last year. For instance, the number of applications for registration of nurses received at 1 July last was 974 and 1,841 at 31 October. That was an increase of 223% in July 2015 over the same period in 2014 and an increase of 139% in October 2015 over the same period in 2014.

The moratorium being lifted allows for the recruitment of professional nurses. In fact, I was speaking to a young graduate nurse the other day who had just qualified from UCD.

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