Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that far too many people are waiting far too long for treatment in Ireland. As I mentioned earlier, while there are hundreds of thousands of people on waiting lists, the majority, more than 50%, wait less than six months for treatment or an appointment and approximately one third are seen within three months. Although that is no good to people who are waiting for prolonged periods of time, it is important to acknowledge that the majority of people wait for less than six months. Due to the funding that has been provided to the National Treatment Purchase Fund and the additional funding provided to the HSE there was a decrease of 2,000 in the number of people waiting for procedures in August. I hope that will continue.

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