Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Táim buíoch as an deis labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. On Tuesday I raised with the Taoiseach the scandal of tens of thousands of patients being omitted from official waiting list numbers, as published by the National Treatment Purchase Fund and highlighted by the "RTE Investigates" programme on Monday night. The bravery of families in these situations is heroic and their anguish is millteanach dona.

I want to raise the case of Jade Doran from Letterkenny. She is a 19 year old student studying law. She has had ENT problems for years and is going deaf in both ears. She has been seen by a consultant and has been advised that she needs hearing aids. She is now on a waiting list but has received no indication of a timeframe and no follow-up appointment. Jade also has a problem with her knee and has Osgood-Schlatter disease. She has been on a waiting list for orthopaedics for four years. She is studying and all of this is affecting her studies, with the uncertainty making the situation even worse.

It is patients like Jade and her family who are affected by the scandal of the waiting list crisis and it is for people like Jade that solutions must be found. That is why I put Sinn Féin's proposals directly to the Taoiseach for a single, integrated hospital waiting management scheme. Teachta O'Reilly sent this to the Minister last September but he did not even bother meeting her. I commend the proposition to the Minister again. I ask him to consider, as he said he would, introducing a system that serves patients like Jade.

See this speech in context