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

Twelve months ago the Government agreed in the confidence and supply agreement to re-establish the remit of the National Treatment Purchase Fund to deal with waiting lists. Nothing has happened since then. The €20 million has not been spent by the NTPF and we are now into May 2017.

Those are the facts. There has been a lack of urgency. We all saw the scoliosis crisis but it should not have to have been revealed in such a telling and effective manner on RTE. There are still more than 4,500 children who have been waiting in excess of 18 months for an appointment in the three children's hospitals in Dublin. It is scandalous. We are talking about all-time records. The former Minister for Health, now Senator James Reilly, got rid of the National Treatment Purchase Fund. We are back to the same massaging of figures that he engaged in, widening the timelines and saying that the Government will concentrate on those waiting more than 18 months.

The National Treatment Purchase Fund should be restored. Rather than micromanaging it, we should get its systems back into play with the forensic way in which it tackled waiting lists in the past. Too many people, in particular too many children, are waiting far too long. The execution and delivery of a resolution to these crises is simply not happening in the health area. Waiting lists and times are getting longer every time the figures are published. There is no appreciable gain or sense that the Government is getting on top of the issue.

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