Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I tend to agree that if a waiting list initiative is a flash in the pan or a one year thing it does not have a major impact. It just drives down some waiting lists for some time, after which they pop back up. This is why, in my budget discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, my Department and I were very eager to get continuity of funding for the NTPF. This is why we are announcing not only an allocation for this year but also for next year, which allows the NTPF to gear back up. It also provides a degree of certainty for people working in the system and, most important, for patients. While we can have this ideological debate about people waiting, people are waiting too long and there is some spare capacity in parts of the public hospitals and private hospitals which we must use to try to drive down waiting lists. The Deputy is correct that we do not know everything about waiting lists. There is much we do not know, and we need more data. However, through the HSE liaising with our acute hospitals, we know there are particular difficulties. As a public representative, the Deputy knows it through her clinics that there are difficulties in orthopaedics, scoliosis and ENT cases. We will go with what we know, but we could do with better data.

See this speech in context