Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

When I was out and about in my constituency at the weekend, I saw a neighbour of mine limping a little more badly than usual. I asked him what the story was about his hip. He is a man who had a knee operation a few years ago privately, but his private insurance has lapsed. He was placed on the public list last June for a hip operation and told recently to expect to undergo an operation about 18 months from now. He is in fierce pain and thinking of giving up his job because he really cannot hack it at the moment. He is one of 658,677 health service patients who are in a queue of one kind or another. They will soon be talking about the Taoiseach's legacy. I do not think there is much of one. We have the longest health service waiting lists in all of Europe by some distance. In the city of Cork, between Cork Univeristy Hospital and the Mercy Hospital, there are four times as many waiting for 12 months or more for an outpatient appointment than three years ago. What will the Taoiseach do to address the scandal of the two tier health service and the longest waiting lists in Europe? Where does the Cabinet committee fit into that process?

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