Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not impressed by the Taoiseach's reply. Last night, the "RTE Investigates" programme showed that tens of thousands of patients waiting for operations and procedures are not even included in the official waiting list numbers published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

I commend the programme makers. It appears that over 80,000 patients have been excluded from the official figures. In addition, 81,000 others are on waiting lists, some in great difficulties. The total is twice the capacity of Croke Park. God knows how many more are waiting to see consultants. The Minister for Health was aware of the scandal. How could he not have known? All of us here have made representations on behalf of citizens who are on waiting lists. We are not talking about a small number of patients. We are talking about the lives and well-being of more than 80,000 citizens, some of whom, including children, are, as we saw on last night's programme, languishing in tremendous pain.

This is just another example of a health service that is in a state of perpetual crisis. I disagree completely with the Taoiseach. It is not just about misleading the public about waiting lists, it is about the 587 people who are on trolleys today, cancelled surgeries, thousands of hospital beds removed and a two-tier system in which health workers, particularly nurses, are not properly treated, and where patients suffer. The plight of patients, especially children with scoliosis, and the bravery and anguish of their families, captured so graphically on last night's programme, has further eroded confidence in the Government, our general politics, our political system and our health service.

There is a complete lack of accountability. The Minister is not accountable. The Taoiseach, while he has Fianna Fáil's support, is not accountable. We should dispense with the pretence that anyone present will get any real answers from the Taoiseach today - not me, not the patients, not their families, not the people working in the health service. Instead, I propose a single, integrated hospital waiting list management system. We published this as part of our Better for Health policy. In December 2015, we presented it to the Taoiseach and the Minister at the time. It is a plan for a public health service. While we do not pretend it is an easy fix, we show it can be done. On the issue of management of waiting lists, we have proposed a new system called "Comhliosta". This would replace the current system and be responsible for generating maximum waiting times based on a single, integrated hospital waiting list system.

The Sinn Féin health spokesperson, Deputy O'Reilly, wrote to the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, on 17 August last requesting a meeting to discuss the proposal. She is still waiting for him to reply. The Minister may well grin.

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