The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, is assuring everyone that the health service is getting better and waiting lists are getting shorter. He assures us that patients who are waiting the longest for treatment are in fact being treated. Unfortunately, the facts and figures confirm that since taking office, the number of adults waiting for surgery in the country's hospitals has actually increased by a dramatic 40%. The latest figures show that 13,435 adults were waiting longer than six months at the end of March. This is a damning indictment of the stewardship of the Minister, Deputy Reilly. There now are more patients waiting for treatment for longer than six months, eight months and nine months. When contacted about this situation, the Department of Health has confirmed and states it is due to severe pressures on emergency departments although this is another area the Minister, Deputy Reilly, stated recently was under control and getting better.

On the ground, however, nothing could be further from the truth. For example, in the past three weeks alone, all elective surgery except for paediatrics has been postponed in Cork University Hospital. In that hospital, a daily e-mail is being sent to the wards telling them to cancel all elective surgery. This includes cardiac, orthopaedic and neurosurgery and, most shockingly, it includes cases for the treatment of cancers. Consultants inform me that it is practically impossible to plan any elective surgery as the accident and emergency department is so busy.

That hospital is finding it extremely hard to cope and while three wards are closed in that hospital alone, 84 wards are closed across the country's public hospitals. In addition, 408 patients were on trolleys yesterday in accident and emergency units across the health system. Yet again, this is an area the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, states is under control.

Is the Minister, Deputy Reilly, in denial or is he living in some fantasy land? Does the Tánaiste accept that severe issues now face the health service and that the centre within the health service can no longer hold? At present, 2,277 public beds in the health service are closed and elective surgery, even in cancer cases, is being postponed as a result.

Thank you, Deputy.

These are not my figures but come from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which, on entering office, the Minister, Deputy Reilly, indicated he would accept as being the official figures in respect of trolley count, enclosures and so on.

Thank you, Deputy.

Does the Tánaiste acknowledge the health service is now under extraordinary strain and requires dramatic intervention by the Government to arrest the crumbling across the board of all aspects of the service it attempts to provide for the people?

First, from the very outset the priority of the Government has been to unblock access and to improve the flow of patients because patients are its number one priority. As set out in the programme for Government, the Minister for Health established a special delivery unit immediately on foot of the Government entering office. The aim of the special delivery unit is to unblock access to acute services by improving the flow of patients through the system. The Government's commitment to improving access is clear and part of it pertains to the reform of hospital services.

However, it is important to be clear about the facts in this regard. A figure of 13,435 adults waiting for planned procedures has been quoted in the media and Deputy Martin repeated it this morning. I am informed that this figure is incorrect. The actual figure I have to hand is 10,002 at the end of March and that has been published on the National Treatment Purchase Fund's website, www.ntpf.ie. This constitutes an increase of 4% from the figure of March 2011 and not 40% as the Deputy has alleged.

However, when considering these numbers, one must take into account both the numbers of people who are on the list and the period of time they have been waiting. In March 2013, the median waiting time was 2.4 months, which was a decrease from the equivalent figure of three months in March 2011. Moreover, when the special delivery unit was set up in July 2011, a total of 6,277 patients were waiting for more than nine months for inpatient or day case treatment, and this was a legacy left by Deputy Martin's Government. However, by December 2012, just 109 patients were waiting for longer than nine months, and this is an achievement that ought to be acknowledged.

However, the Government is not complacent. The progress does not mean the problem has been solved. The Deputy asked me whether the health service is under strain and the health service always is under strain. The Government is addressing that strain, reducing the length of time that people are waiting and dealing with the situation on the ground. There has been an increase in the number of people presenting at emergency departments over the past couple of months.

As Deputy Martin knows, that is a seasonal phenomenon. The Minister for Health and the HSE are working to bring the number down.

The first thing the Minister did when he came into office was change the targets. The internationally recognised targets for waiting lists were three months and six months. He unilaterally said it is 12 months. He had to massage the figures and perpetrate a con trick. That is what he did. The SDU has refined his machinations to nine months and over. The figures for three months and over and six months and over have rocketed over the past two years. The trolley count has also rocketed in the past few weeks. There is a fundamental problem which is more than just a case of the services being stretched. The Tánaiste has not commented on the fact that there is an e-mail going around a major acute tertiary hospital telling consultants and the wards not to do elective surgery. Elective cardiac and cancer surgery and neurosurgery is lifesaving surgery. It is unacceptable that this should be happening.

A further cut of €750 million is lined up this year for the health service. The centre cannot hold in the health service. Private health insurance is unravelling as thousands cancel it every week. The public hospital system cannot cope with the demand. This is what consultants, nurses and people on the ground are telling us.

The Deputy should put his question because he is over time.

It is important to put aside the spin and acknowledge that a dramatic intervention is needed. The Government needs to stand back from this, assess the crisis and then work out a proper pathway towards resolving it to ensure that as a minimum in difficult times we can provide a basic health service to our public and that operations that are needed are carried out.

At the end of 2012 there had been over 20,000 fewer people on trolleys than at the end of 2011. That was an improvement of 24%. Up to 5 April 2013, 2,600 fewer people had been on trolleys compared with the same period in 2012. There are strains on the health service, particularly at this time of year. We have come through a period of particularly unseasonable weather. Winter time and winter weather put additional pressure on emergency departments and on the hospital system.

The Minister is saying everything is fine.

Nobody is saying everything is fine.

The Minister for Health is saying everything is fine.

As I have said, in the health service there are always strains and demands and the question is how best to manage them. The Minister for Health and the HSE are managing as best they can. If the Minister needs to turn somewhere for advice on how to manage better it will not be to Deputy Martin because he, of all people, was not able to manage the health service in the best of financial times, when he was Minister for Health and had plenty of money available. He left a legacy of the HSE and mess that we are doing our best to clean up.

That is the usual argument.

The Minister will not turn to the Tánaiste.

The Tánaiste knew all the answers when he was on the Opposition benches.

The Minister will not be turning to Deputy Shortall. We all know where the Tánaiste stands in respect of the Minister for Health. He is four square behind him.