Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is interesting because I have been trying for some time to get an answer from the Department of Health to this question. I have submitted a number of questions and emails to try to get a response. The day after I submitted this question as a parliamentary question, I got a reply from the HSE, which is different from the reply the Minister for State just gave. It states that it talked to Children's Health Ireland and got figures from the organisation that 1,620 people are waiting for genetic tests. St. James's Hospital cancer genetic testing on 16 August had a waiting list of 3,167. That is different from the response the Minister of State gave today, which is disappointing but it goes back to what Deputy Shortall said; there is something wrong in the Department of Health. This is not the first time this has happened in relation to a question. In July, I put forward a question regarding Cuban doctors and the likelihood of them coming to Ireland. The Minister did not respond. I sent emails to him over a year but he still did not respond. The day before the question came up in the Dáil, a response is issued by the Department. Something is wrong and needs to be addressed. It is very important.

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