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

Perhaps the best comfort I can provide is twofold. First, we will work with the European Union to ensure we are part of any agreement with the UK on ongoing co-operation on health. Second, and perhaps most important, I note that our investment in the National Treatment Purchase Fund and in reducing waiting times for operations and procedures is working. At the end of July 2017, 10,000 people were waiting for cataract operations and this figure had fallen by December 2017 to 8,000. By December 2018, it had fallen to 6,440. The numbers waiting three months are down by half and the number waiting more than nine months is down by 87%.

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