Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that there is a lot of money in the programme for Government for health - up to €17 billion. Despite that, there are serious issues, as the Taoiseach knows, up and down the country. I received a response recently from the HSE to a parliamentary question. I found out that there are 975 people on the waiting list for ear, nose and throat, ENT, outpatient services at Roscommon University Hospital. Some of them go back to May 2019 while 310 go back to November 2016. There are 645 people on the waiting list for routine services, some of whom go back to November 2015. This will be four years in a couple of months. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that in respect of ENT services, it is very important that those outpatient clinics are looked after. The management and staff at that hospital are doing a fantastic job and the hospital has many successes, which I acknowledge. They tell me the problem concerns resources. They do not have the resources. Can the Taoiseach do anything for a hospital like that with such a waiting list in the ENT area?

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