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

When it comes to our health service, I acknowledge that we can do better. We do very well in lots of areas. It is important to recognise that and to recognise the work of our health service staff in that regard. Life expectancy in Ireland has improved considerably in recent years. This did not happen by accident. It is the result of better public health and a better health service. The number of cancer deaths is falling. The number of cardiovascular deaths by, for example, stroke and heart attack is falling considerably. Having not built any public hospitals in well over a decade, there are now three new public hospitals under construction, including the national children's hospital, the national forensic mental health hospital and the new national rehabilitation hospital in Dún Laoghaire, in respect of which I had the pleasure of turning the sod with the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, earlier this week. We now have free GP care for children under six and pensioners over 70. We are reducing prescription charges and diabetic care can now be provided in GP surgeries. We are also seeing improvements in public health in terms of the decrease in alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. We have very good screening programmes that are much better than those in other countries, for example, around breast and colorectal and cervical cancer. There are lots of good things happening in our health service. We should be fair to people who work in health services and fair in general in acknowledging this.

The Deputy is correct that we can do better. I have outlined to him how we intend to do better when it comes to cataract procedures in particular. It is also important to point out that when it comes to people who are waiting, often the figures do not tell the full story. When it comes to the hundreds of thousands of people who are waiting for an appointment or a procedure and operation, more than half will wait less than six months and approximately one third will wait less than three months. We should aim to get to a position where it is much better than that and in which the vast majority of people wait no more than three months but we have a long way to go.

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