Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 477: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the average cost per year of the National Treatment Purchase Fund; her plans for the future of this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1811/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The allocations to the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) in each year since 2002 are as follows:

Over 135,000 patients have been facilitated by the NTPF to date with either in-patient procedures or out-patient appointments. There has been a significant reduction in the number of people waiting for surgical procedures from 7.4 per 1,000 population in 2002 to 4.3 per 1,000 in 2008.

The NTPF will continue in 2009 to arrange in-patient and out-patient care for persons on hospital waiting lists. At my request, the NTPF, working with the HSE, will maintain a particular focus on the issue of people waiting for more than twelve months for treatment. I am pleased to say that, as a result of the efforts made by both organisations during 2008, the total number of persons waiting over 12 months was reduced by 66%, from 4637 to 1576 between December 2007 and December 2008.