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

The key thing to look at is the number of people who have been waiting more than three months or more than six months as the case may be.

It is encouraging that in August we saw a fall of 2,000 in the number of people waiting for inpatient operations and day-case procedures. It appears that traditional funding for the HSE and the dedicated funding for the NTPF had an impact on that. I acknowledge that was something Fianna Fáil sought in the confidence and supply agreement and it appears to be having some success. We need to consider whether additional funding will be required for that next year.

In response to the question on budget announcements, as I have said previously, the budget will be announced on budget day.

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