Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with a lot of that. To be clear, it is not the case that we are telling people things will get better in the future. I am saying clearly that our healthcare professionals have made remarkable progress already. For example, with regard to cataract services, when this Government came in, the average waiting time for cataract treatment in Dublin, in the Deputy’s constituency and in mid-Leinster, was six years. It is now less than 12 months and falling fast. Children who were referred to an eye specialist in Dublin and mid-Leinster when this Government came in were waiting two to three years; they are now waiting five weeks. Women referred for gynaecology care in Sligo used to wait four years but they are now waiting four to six weeks. We are seeing more and more examples of this throughout the country. I will come back in my last contribution to this question to talk specifically about children’s spinal care.

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