Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ar dtús báire, tá athrú ar siúl. Tá sé ag teacht. Tá an tseirbhís sláinte ag éirí níos treise lá i ndiaidh lae. Tá 6,000 níos mó duine ag obair sa tseirbhís i mbliana ná mar a bhí ag an am céanna anuraidh. Is léir go bhfuil géarchéim ann. Tá a fhios ag cách go bhfuil géarchéim ann de bharr na paindéime, go bhfuil a lán dochar déanta do chúrsaí sláinte ag an gcoróinvíreas agus gur chuir an víreas a lán brú ar na cúrsaí sin. Is é sin an fáth go bhfuil na liostaí i bhfad níos faide anois ná mar a bhí siad roimh theacht an choróinvíris.

Change is happening and will continue to happen with regard to our health services. Fianna Fáil has not been in government for more than ten years. This Government, of which Fianna Fáil is a member, has dramatically increased health spending over the past 12 months. Notwithstanding the extraordinary pressure the pandemic has put on our health services and the fact that it has frustrated and impeded our attempts to get waiting lists down, bed capacity has increased, as have ICU capacity and diagnostic capacity. Up to €25 million in funding has been granted to improve GPs access to diagnostics, which has resulted in up to 70,000 additional scans taking place.

I take the Deputy's point regarding children. We do not want children to remain on any waiting list for too long. In previous eras, we had got waiting lists for children down to three months. It our objective to get waiting times for children right across the board, including those for mental health, disabilities, acute issues and the various specialties, reduced considerably. For example, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has allocated €4 million for the period, September and December 2021, to reduce primary care waiting lists for psychology services. This is a targeted approach that involves the utilisation of public and private capacity, locum professionals, Saturday clinics and so forth to get the waiting times for the thousands of children who had been waiting for access to primary care psychology prior to this initiative reduced significantly. Likewise, on the special needs front, the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has moved very strongly and allocated substantial funding to get the waiting lists for childhood assessments reduced.

The Minister for Health is preparing an action plan for dealing with waiting lists more generally. He secured approximately €240 million this year but, because of Covid and the two lockdowns, we had reduced capacity to do the work on that waiting list initiative that we wanted to get done. The funding will be allocated again for 2022. The waiting list plan, which aims to tackle these large and unacceptable numbers, will be announced by the Minister shortly. Critically, it will set out the timelines. The Deputy should be under no illusion, however. Substantial change has occurred. There is no question but that targeting the significant waiting lists, which have also increased significantly because of the pandemic, will be a key priority over the coming weeks, now that we are emerging from the pandemic, and into the early part of 2022, to get those waiting lists and waiting times reduced for all involved.

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