According to a recent reply from management at University Hospital Kerry, the current waiting time to see the rheumatologist is three years. This is crazy. Our health system was never as bad. To have old people who are crippled with arthritis waiting this long to see a rheumatologist is an outrage. I ask the Taoiseach to think about an elderly person crippled and in pain being told that he or she will have to wait for three years. It is an outrage.

I absolutely agree with the Deputy. The waiting times people endure for outpatient appointments and for operations in Ireland make us an outlier in the western world and an outlier in a very bad way. For a country that spends so much on health care, it is almost incomprehensible that we are not able to provide a much better service. I know that the HSE has published its waiting list action plan and I hope that we will see some results come from that. In addition to that, €15 million has been provided to the National Treatment Purchase Fund for operations.