Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Is it better across the board? It is not. Our healthcare workers have brought waiting times in this country down from over 13 months to seven months and we are going towards the agreed Sláintecare target that no one waits more than ten to 12 weeks but, apparently, that is irrelevant.

Apparently according to Deputy Boyd Barrett, all of the progress that our healthcare workers are making does not matter. Well, it does matter and we are making progress. I fully acknowledge the question put to me by several colleagues who said that progress is being made but asked whether I accept that we are only some of the way there. I accept that 100%. We are about halfway there. We are about four years into what is an eight-year turnaround to get to where we all want to get to, which is universal healthcare - the single-tier public system envisaged under Sláintecare where care is affordable, timely and high-quality and where new services exist. Contrary to some of the misinformation we hear in this Chamber and elsewhere, I acknowledge that the healthcare workers in this country - doctors, nurses, health and social care professionals, Department of Health officials, GPs and pharmacists - are working night and day-----

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