Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is simply ignoring the record level of investment in our health service, which is €27.4 billion in funding in 2026. If she compares 2020 to July 2025, there are over 29,000 more staff, which is a 28% increase in staffing across our health system. There are over 10,000 more nurses and midwives, 5,000 health and social care professionals, 1,400 consultants and over 2,000 doctors and dentists, all of whom are making a really positive contribution with changed demographics, increased demand and pressure across our health system.

Even with that occurring, we have had a 12% reduction in patients on waiting lists exceeding 12 months and a reduction in the average waiting time from 7.2 months to 6.5 months, and that is against a backdrop of a 9% increase in outpatients and a 5% increase in inpatient and day case attendances.

I regret whenever there are cancelled appointments for anyone across our hospital system but we are staffing and resourcing our public health in an unprecedented way-----

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