Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have no monopoly on empathy with the families whose plight was highlighted on the "RTE Investigates" programme last night. Collectively, we in this House have an obligation to address the issues with meaningful policies that will impact on people's lives immediately. We need, first, clarity on the issue of the waiting lists, in terms of who knew what, why people were on different lists and whether there was intentional reasoning to keep the list numbers down. The policies of the past six years in terms of shrinking the public hospital system via bed closures and not funding the National Treatment Purchase Fund were only ever going to lead to more people waiting for longer on waiting lists across the acute and elective hospital systems. Will the Minister commit to expanding the role of the National Treatment Purchase Fund by ensuring there is adequate funding in place, more so than just the €15 million we sought last year? Funding must be front-loaded to deal with this chronic problem immediately.

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