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

-----whom Sinn Féin thought a few months ago was unfit for office. Now it is using his words as an attempt to pursue the next head. It shows the entire approach of Sinn Féin to the health service. It really does not care about patients or the health service whatsoever; its approach is just a stick to beat the Government with. It is just a constant, ongoing political attack.

Health is a very difficult area to manage and a very difficult area to lead in for any Minister or Government. It is, however, an area in which, despite the many difficulties we have, real progress is being made. We see that in the fact that life expectancy has increased in the past couple of years. We see it in falling cancer mortality rates, improving stroke survival rates, improving heart attack survival rates and much better clinical outcomes across the board. These things do not happen by accident; they happen because of the hard work and professionalism of our healthcare staff. They happen because the Government is pursuing the right policies and strategies, by and large, and because of the additional resources we are putting into the health service all the time. Even in some of the most difficult areas, as with people waiting for operations and procedures, until last month or at least until the strike, the number of patients waiting more than 12 weeks for operations was at a four-year or five-year year low. There will now be a setback for the next few months as a consequence of the strike but we will get on top of that again. This year so far, the number of patients spending time on hospital trolleys has been at a three-year low, if not a four-year low although I accept there are still too many.

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