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

I thank Deputy Collins. To answer his question, it is not the right way to treat our citizens. Nobody should have to wait for long periods for any procedure and certainly not a cataract procedure which, as the Deputy knows, can save people's sight, allowing them to maintain their independence and, in many cases, avoid further injuries that can occur because of sight loss.

What are we doing about it? We are doing quite a lot when it comes to cataracts. The Deputy mentioned that people are travelling to Northern Ireland and other countries. That is not happening by chance. It is part of the cross-border directive, a European law to which we signed up as a Government whereby we fund people to have their treatment in Belfast, Derry and Enniskillen in the United Kingdom so they can have their treatment done more quickly overseas, even if it means us paying another Government or another health administration to do so. That is something we have signed up to and something we now fund. In addition to this, we have been increasing funding for the National Treatment Purchase Fund. Funding has increased from approximately €20 million this year and will rise to €50 million next year. This is already showing considerable results. The Deputy may have noticed from the figures released on Friday that for four months in row, the number of people waiting for a hospital procedure, operation or scope has decreased. The number of people waiting has fallen from a high of 86,000 earlier this year to 80,595 now, at the end of November. More than 56% of patients are now waiting less than six months for their procedure. That is four months in a row during which the number of people waiting for operations and procedures has fallen and we will continue to resource both the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase Fund in order that we keep seeing the number of people waiting for hips, knees, cataracts and other operations falling. It will not be done like it was in the past. We will not just throw money at it for a few months and knock a bunch of people off the waiting list and then see it rise again.

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