Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join with others in the tribute to the photographer Mr. Tom Burke. What an extraordinary man. He caught the expressions, the good times, the sad times, the low times and the high times of many politicians. He stood outside Leinster House at the Kildare Street gate and was occasionally at the Merrion Street gate. I came in that side once and said to him, "You are normally at the front." He said, "I go everywhere. I am at every gate taking pictures." A few of us, including my friends and family, were in here on my very first day. He was very kind and said that he would send us on a photograph. He did more than that: he printed off three copies and he sent them on, one of which is sitting in my dining room. I thank his family for that. I am sure that many of us here have pictures that were taken by him and have them up, which captured a particular moment in the particular political life of us as individuals. I want to acknowledge this.

I raised the issue last week, which I wish to raise again, of the enormous waiting lists in excess of 900,000 people who are waiting to see consultants either for treatment or assessment. The list is now heading into 1 million people who are waiting for assessment or treatment. Subsequent to the day on which I spoke, I received a memo detailing and setting out issues around ophthalmology, dermatology, urology, gynaecology, cardiology, respiratory medicine, endocrinology, paediatrics, breast surgery, neurosurgery and oncology. The memo set out the enormous numbers of people who are waiting for scans, consultations and follow-ups. These are all part of this group.

I contacted the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which is an independent State agency that validates all of these figures for the Department, with which it works closely. The figures have gone up in one year by 66,000 people. I am aware that housing is a big issue for Government, for everybody involved in politics, and in life itself, but these waiting list figures are alarming. I am aware that the Minister has committed to establishing another unit. These functions are meant to be part of the National Treatment Purchase Fund's functions. The Minister has spoken about establishing a national task force to tackle the growing hospital waiting lists. Perhaps we will hear something about this in the budget next week and I do not want to pre-empt that. I now intend to commit myself to standing here once a month to read out the figures because they are alarming. I would like a debate on this issue at some stage in the future.

I thank all of those involved in the debate on wills in the House yesterday. It was a great debate. It was meaningful and interesting. I referred to Teagasc in last night's debate. Teagasc was bombarded online last night with its seminar on inheritance and succession. One can look at this on the Teagasc website. I thank the people involved. Hopefully the Government might come back with its own Bill. I do not have a hang-up about anybody's Bill, I just want this national register of wills in the future. Hopefully we will see something quicker than the nine months that the Government's motion put to the House, and which was agreed by the House, last night. I thank those who engaged constructively in that debate.