Health Services Waiting Lists
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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David Cullinane (SF), Waterford

As I said, 280,000 people are on primary and community care waiting lists. Of those, 86,000 people are waiting for physiotherapy, 60,000 people are waiting for occupational therapy, 34,000 people are waiting for psychology, 32,000 people are waiting for speech and language therapy, 24,000 people are waiting for audiology, 22,000 people are waiting for dietetics, 20,000 people are waiting for ophthalmology and 8,000 people are waiting for podiatry. I submitted a parliamentary question on how long people are waiting because waiting lists are bad enough as it is, but the real test is how long people are waiting. There were some incredible responses. A person in Longford-Westmeath has been on a waiting list for dietetics for 709 weeks. Someone in Louth has been waiting for ophthalmology for 617 weeks. There were several cases in Dublin of people waiting 500 weeks for psychology and a person in Galway has been waiting 534 weeks for occupational therapy. There is a lot to be done in this area. I do not doubt everything the Minister has said in terms of the additional staff and so on, but if Sláintecare is to be delivered and if we are to live up to the potential of the health regions, primary and community care have to be better supported.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09