Over the past three and a half years the Government has been at pains to spin that the health service was being reformed and transformed. Figures produced this week show that nothing could be further from the truth. In fairness to the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, since being appointed to the job he has spoken the truth only to be slapped down by the Taoiseach, who seems ignorant of the truth.

A few months ago the Taoiseach told us that Fine Gael had tackled waiting lists. He told the Fine Gael Ard-Fheis that the problem was resolved. However, the evidence is very different. The number of patients waiting more than nine months for inpatient or day-case treatment has risen by 1,000% in July. There are now 5,448 people waiting more than nine months for a day-case treatment. There has been a fivefold increase in the number of patients waiting more than a year for inpatient and day-case treatment at Beaumont and there are significant backlogs at the Mater, in Galway, in Cork and at St. James's.

In 2011 the Taoiseach said, "My Government is keenly aware of the stress that waiting for treatment causes to the citizens of our country and in response to this the Minister for Health has instructed public hospitals to ensure that by the end of 2011 they have no patients waiting more than 12 months for treatment". Today there are 20,928 patients waiting more than 12 months for treatment. Those are the real figures. They show the extent of the Government's misleading of people and inability to manage the difficulties of our health service. The Government was warned about that and yet it introduced a flawed health budget that took €200 million from hospitals. The cause of these delays was a flawed service plan and now we have the proof.

A question, please.

In light of the evidence of those waiting list figures, does the Minister agree that the health service plan agreed by the Government and by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, was flawed or at the very least unrealistic and is not meeting the demands of the people? How will the Government resolve the issue?

I thank the Deputy for the question. I think it is fair to say that everyone recognises the challenges that exist in our health service. Since 2008 the budgets of the Department of Health and the HSE have been cut by €3.8 billion and there has been a very significant reduction in staffing levels. Despite that, the Department of Health and the health services are increasing their treatment of patients. That is the backdrop here. Some 115,000 more patients are being treated in our hospitals today than was the case four years ago; so much more work is being done.

The other aspect clear in today's figures is that the emergency department workload has significantly increased which is putting pressure on elective surgery as it always has done in the past. There is no doubt that there are challenges here, but the truth is that reform in the delivery of the health service remains the only route to resolve these issues. We need to move to systems that can better manage the flow. We still have problems with that. Too many people are turning up in the emergency department when they could be treated in primary care and the strategy is to roll out primary care.

We still have problems with discharges from our hospitals and there is also a strategy to address that. The reform plan is clearly on the right tracks, but there are difficulties as everyone acknowledges. These figures show some areas of significant improvement. As the Deputy can see, the waiting lists for outpatients are much improved and the waiting lists in emergency departments are much improved, but there are other areas where there are continuing challenges.

The Minister shout get his head out of the sand. Some 20,928 people particularly appreciate the challenges. The clinical director in the Minister's local hospital, Beaumont, described some of the facilities there as unsafe. The Minister spoke about the difficulty with getting people out of hospital beds. The situation in Beaumont is being worsened by an increasing number of patients fit for discharge but in acute beds while on a waiting list for nursing home beds because the Government cannot manage the fair deal scheme.

The Minister spoke about primary care. What will he say to the 350 GPs who first time ever have been forced to take to the streets to wake up the Government to the reality of the crisis in primary care?

One cannot even get a trolley in Beaumont, never mind get a bed.

In respect of issues with primary care, hospitals and nursing homes, the former Minister for Health, now the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, is responsible for all of it. It was a flawed service plan. The Government took €200 million out of the hospital budget which had a direct consequence.

A question, please.

The Minister should wake up. The Government is not transforming the health service. People are on waiting lists. There is a 1,000% increase in the numbers on waiting lists and the Government is ignorant of the problem. I cannot understand why the Minister for Health, who has the courage to tell it as it is, gets slapped down and those who were cheerleaders for this disaster - this crime against citizens of the country - are promoted within the Government.

I will take no lectures from Fianna Fáil on the issue of health reform.

Why not?

Deputy Calleary's leader committed in 2004 that he would eliminate health waiting lists.

After three and a half years, what has the Government done?

Sorry-----

He also presided over a Department of Health that increased its budget by 50%-----

The Minister should answer for his Government's stewardship now.

-----and added 30,000 people to the health service, but he still did not resolve any of those issues.

From the end of 2011 on.

Sorry, will Deputies stay quiet please?

Going back over the years - I well remember it - Fianna Fáil had 25,000 people waiting more than six months to have treatment.

What about 2014?

The problems were there in Fianna Fáil's time; it threw money at it and did not deliver.

The Minister is in Cabinet and should tell us what he is going to do.

Would you stay quiet, please?

We have to resolve the challenges in a very difficult environment where budgets and staff numbers are reducing.

People are still sick.

The people are fine.

Stay quiet.

Despite that, more patients are being treated, fewer people are waiting for outpatient treatment and fewer people are on trolleys. So progress is being made. However, I am first to acknowledge that this is a challenging area of reform. We have a new Minister who is setting out his priorities and he will get the results in this area.