Hospital Waiting Lists
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (FG), Dún Laoghaire

I reject the question of trying to present this in any particular way. I commissioned the audit because of my concerns about this. There is no question but that I was uncomfortable with what was being found overall, but specifically when I drill into those a bit more there is not a systemic problem I can see. What I did see and what I was concerned about was that less complex procedures were being too easily moved to private facilities, resulting in the more complex procedures remaining. I think what the Deputy describes with those figures reflects some of that. There is a bigger complexity than what he has presented.
This is why I initiated it. This was my concern. My concern in particular was that this was more endemic than the report ultimately gives credit for. The Deputy is right that there is a limitation in data, but there is no question but that this audit was done with the best of intent and in good faith. We see more real experiences in the qualitative piece that Lily Collison did. That was an important piece of work that really speaks to the experience children had. It is improving but is not perfect.

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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