Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are certainly ready to acknowledge progress where it has been made and we have welcomed moves by Government to review how additional funding for spinal surgery was spent by the VHI as that is important. However, I repeat that it is just not good enough for the Taoiseach to say it will take two Governments to resolve issues with children's health in Ireland. He is in government and has been for many years now and it is not good enough that we are still seeing these waiting lists.

Let us look at facts. The Irish Hospital Consultants Association tells us the difficulty with filling permanent consultant posts is a root cause of what it in its words are "unacceptably long" child waiting lists. In August last year the association told us over 100,000 children and young people were on hospital waiting lists with 20,600 children waiting longer than a year for treatment or assessment by a hospital consultant. The latest HSE data reveals the number of unfilled permanent consultant posts has risen to a record 933 and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association says this is the highest consultant vacancy rate ever. These are the facts, just as there are facts on the admission of children to adult psychiatric units. A commitment was made by the Taoiseach's Government four years ago to end this practice yet we see 50% of those children admitted to an adult unit last year. This was done because no bed was available in a CAMHS unit. There are unacceptable waiting lists for CAMHS services. There are the facts and the Taoiseach's Government has simply not done enough to address them.

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