Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government commits to providing adequate resources to reduce hospital waiting lists. This week, a woman needing hospital treatment received a letter telling her that she had been put on a waiting list of in excess of 175 weeks for an appointment at the Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar. That is more than three years. This woman is ill and potentially suffering from a serious blood disorder, yet she is being left with no notion of when or if she will be called for an appointment. She will face this uncertainty for anything up to three years. She is not alone, as more than 500,000 people are facing the same uncertainty on waiting lists. It is nothing short of outrageous. It should be said that Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar, is the same hospital that only last month had to issue a full capacity protocol due to dangerous levels of overcrowding. Now, this woman, who is just one of many, is being told that she may have to wait for up to three years for her appointment.

Does the Taoiseach accept that the Government has failed to deal with waiting lists at hospitals-----

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