Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are a few things to unpick there, the first of which is around waiting times for inpatient and day-case patients. There is good news in that regard. The Deputy will have seen the releases in recent weeks. We have looked at 2023. Thanks to an enormous effort by healthcare workers across the country, the waiting time versus the Covid peak for someone waiting the longest - over 12 months - has fallen by nearly half. We will continue to make progress. Great efforts have been made in every hospital to make that happen. The waiting time, particularly for long waiters, is falling quickly, which is something we all want to see.

On elective work, I share the Deputy's frustrations with the processes by which the State engages in building hospitals. It is deeply frustrating, which is why I sanctioned six surgical hubs. One of them will be in the Deputy's neck of the woods, in University Hospital Waterford. I visited Mount Carmel Community Hospital, where the first one is under construction. We will take over that hub in the coming months. The surgical teams I am talking to believe these hubs can be a game-changer for people waiting for procedures, both inpatient and day case.

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