Health Services Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-26 ============================================================ Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West I thank the Senator. I absolutely promise I will visit the Curragh. There is no doubt about that whatsoever. We will get it into the diary. I am looking forward to it because it is such a gem of a place. Clearly Senator O'Loughlin is passionate about Naas hospital. She started by saying what a wonderful hospital it is, and I am sure it is a bustling hospital. It has a large population to cater for and we can imagine how important it is. The response I am about to read out will talk about how much we have reduced waiting times but what it probably will not cover is Senator O'Loughlin's knowledge on the ground of instances where people wait too long. I am not speaking out of turn by saying the Government accepts that, as it stands, waiting lists are too long and too many people are waiting too long on waiting lists. This is something we acknowledge. The Government is committed to improving access to hospital care and reforming and reducing waiting times for patients through a range of measures, including those to increase capacity such as the establishment of surgical hubs. Since 2021, this commitment has been reflected in a series of multi-annual waiting list action plans aimed at sustainably reducing both the number of people waiting and the length of time that they wait. The ultimate aim is to achieve the maximum wait times as set out in the 2017 Sláintecare report of ten weeks for a first outpatient appointment and 12 weeks for an inpatient or day case procedure. The situations outlined by Senator O'Loughlin are far beyond this. In February of this year, the Minister for Health published the waiting list action plan for 2025, representing this Government’s continued commitment to reducing waiting times for patients and improving access to hospital care. With the 2025 plan, the Government is continuing to build upon the progress delivered to date under the multi-annual action plan approach. In relation to Naas specifically, the most recent National Treatment Purchase Fund waiting list figures are for October and they were published on 14 November. They show that 465 patients are waiting for an outpatient cardiology appointment in Naas hospital. Of these, 406, or 87%, are waiting six months or less and 454, or 98%, are waiting 12 months or less. Twelve patients, just 2% of the total waiting list, are waiting over 12 months. The total number of patients waiting has also shown significant improvement compared to the same period last year and in the year to date. The waiting list has decreased by 55% since October 2024 and by 36% in the year to date. The number of patients waiting, and the time they are waiting, have also shown substantial improvement since the adoption of the multi-annual waiting list action plan approach in September 2021. Since then, the total waiting list has decreased by 74% and the number waiting over 12 months has decreased by 99%, that is 982 patients. As we progress towards the ultimate Sláintecare targets, the 2025 waiting list action plan has a target of 50% of outpatient appointments to be undertaken within ten weeks. I am very pleased to be able to say that currently Naas is significantly exceeding this target, with 63% of patients waiting no longer than the Sláintecare ten-week target time. As I said earlier, we all acknowledge that many patients are waiting too long for hospital appointments and treatments. Since 2021, the Government has adopted a multi-annual approach to addressing the problem, and while no patient should have to wait 12 months for an appointment, the figures for Naas show that considerable improvements have been made. It is fair to say improvements have been made, and this is down to pressure from the likes of Senator O'Loughlin, working with the previous Government and the previous Minister for Health, to ensure the waiting list action plans were rolled out. Waiting times have reduced and there are some good figures but Senator O'Loughlin is on the ground meeting people and dealing with constituents who are having a different experience. We can get bogged down in statistics and patting ourselves on the back. There have been improvements but we have to take seriously serious incidents involving older people in particular, as Senator O'Loughlin has highlighted, because it can be dangerous if they are left waiting too long for an appointment. I appreciate Senator O'Loughlin raising the issue. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-11-26/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:22+00:00 Sitting date: 2025-11-26