David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think we all accept that waiting lists are dangerously high. At the weekend, figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, showed almost 900,000 people are on some form of health waiting list. More than 600,000 people are waiting for a hospital appointment, of whom 165,000, including 25,000 children, have been waiting longer than 18 months to see a hospital consultant. We are moving in the wrong direction. I ask the Minister to outline his strategy to tackle, once and for all, these dangerously high wait times.

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