Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are 707,000 people waiting for medical procedures in this country. That is equivalent to everyone living in Westmeath, Laois, Offaly, Cavan, Sligo, Roscommon, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Carlow, Longford and Leitrim. The Fine Gael hospital waiting list is equivalent to the total population of 11 Irish counties. For the majority of these people, there are serious consequences. Many are in constant pain and discomfort, many are incapacitated or disabled by their illness, many will not be able to work and are forced to live on disability payments and many will watch in horror as their health slowly deteriorates while Fine Gael stands idly by.

Our Lady's Hospital in Navan has seen a doubling of figures for waiting lists in the outpatient clinic. In the past two years there has been an increase of 1,255 people waiting for treatment. There are 347 people who have been waiting more than 18 months for treatment whereas, two years ago, there was only one person in that position.

Even if we delete the humanity from this shocking crisis, we are talking about a false economy. Timely medical intervention saves money whereas conditions left to worsen for months and years need more invasive and costly interventions. For the past seven years we have come in here and the Government has pleaded the poor mouth and said it does not have the money. However, in the past three years the Government has given back €1.5 billion in tax breaks to people who are mostly on upper incomes. The front page of theIrish Independenttoday is splashed with speculation that a further €250 million will be given back in tax breaks in October.

It is important to remember that, as Deputies, we are individually and personally responsible for the outcomes of the decisions we make here. It seems Deputy Simon Harris has recently become the Minister for saying sorry. Year after year, Fine Gael makes budgetary decisions that prioritise those living on Fine Gael street and it allows thousands of others to rot on waiting lists.

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