Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To address the issue of waiting lists, the Deputy is right that 162,000 people joined the outpatient waiting list in the past three months, but in that time 832,000 outpatients were treated in our hospitals. We are delivering care. Of course, any system will have people who are joining the waiting list as it is not an immediate service, but most of these patients are there less than six months and 75% are treated within 12 months. There is a system and a pipeline for dealing with them.

When it comes to investment, the Deputy will have read the recent investment plan. From memory, €10 billion is being invested in our health services and, as I said, this is the first series of investments in almost 25 years in expanding the capacity, not just of our hospital system but also of our primary care system, to address the needs of a growing population and an ageing population. We freewheeled through the so-called Celtic tiger years and did not make those investments, but they are now being made because the hard earned recovery we have achieved will be used in a prudent way and we will invest it in elective-only beds and additional capacity throughout the country.

That is the way we invest. We will support the Sláintecare policy, which I understood had broad party support across the House, as a consistent strategy to address health in the long term.

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