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

We are at a situation now, at long last, when it comes to operations, procedures and scopes - not outpatients admittedly because we are still not making much progress there - where we have seen a fall for four months in a row in the number of people waiting for operations and procedures. We are at a situation now where one third of people wait less than three months and more than half of people wait less than six months. I would like to get to the point where we are a normal country with a normal public health service and we do not have very many people at all waiting more than three months. There will often be people waiting six, eight or 12 weeks, even people with the best and most expensive private health insurance packages, but I would like to get to the point where the number of people waiting more than three months really starts to fall dramatically. That is what we are aiming to achieve.

In terms of resourcing cataracts ophthalmology in particular, a new theatre was opened in July in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, which is not far from here. The Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, carried out the opening. I mentioned what we are doing with the National Treatment Purchase Fund and on paying for treatment overseas.

I do not know the details about Bantry. The availability of a theatre is not necessarily a solution in itself as it is necessary to have ophthalmologists and ophthalmic surgeons who can carry out the procedure and nurses and other personnel who are trained in aftercare. The last thing one wants is to have a procedure carried out by somebody who is not qualified and the patient then being nursed by somebody who is not used to recognising when something has gone wrong in somebody's eye. There can be serious issues when one tries to do things like that. However, the Government is focusing on people who have to wait more than three months and six months for operations and procedures. We are starting to see results and we will see more in the coming year.

See this speech in context