Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The way the waiting lists are calculated was changed in many years - 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2014. The most recent change has been to extend the targets to 18 months, which is extraordinary. Why did the Government bury the National Treatment Purchase Fund in 2011? We could never get an answer as to why the former Minister, Senator James Reilly, did that. He took away a capacity that got operations carried out for citizens. Money was allocated and the individual got the hip, cataract or whatever operation was required. The Government buried that at a time when there was increasing pressure on the public sector. The Government was warned time and again about the lists getting worse but the former Ministers, Senator Reilly and Deputy Varadkar, were in denial about that and, in particular, the length of time on waiting lists. That is a key metric here. The time was down to six and three months for the vast majority of disciplines and procedures, but now the new target is 18 months and 12 months in some cases.

On the scoliosis situation, the Taoiseach says 44 were outsourced. All of them should be done, whatever it takes. The Taoiseach knows about the nursing crisis; he has known about it for three years. We pointed out in the Dáil that the recruitment of theatre nurses was the greatest crisis in nursing recruitment over the last three years, but nothing has been done to incentivise the recruitment and, critically, the retention of theatre nurses. That exacerbated the situation that already existed due to closing down the treatment purchase fund from 2011 and the stress and strain on capacity in the public system up to recent times. There is also the issue of clinical prioritisation. The growth of C contracts, for example, will put greater strain on public sector capacity to carry out surgery as well. These issues must be examined.

However, it is urgent that the money not be drip-fed to the treatment purchase fund but fast-tracked and accelerated so there are early significant amounts of money going to the purchase of operations for people such as those we saw last night. It is unacceptable, as the Minister and everybody say. Those people should not be waiting any longer in their current chronic pain. There is a way to deal with it - go out, find the capacity and have the operations carried out for those people. That is the immediate first step, after which there are wider issues to be dealt with.

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