The Government is going in the wrong direction in the delivery of Sláintecare and of healthcare based on need, rather than ability to pay. There are over 12,000 people on the waiting list for Mayo University Hospital today. Some 9,484 of those are outpatients, 1,171 have been waiting for more than three years, and 2,654 are waiting for inpatient procedures. The Tánaiste said last week that this was not about beds, but I beg to differ. The queues for the pain management clinics are getting longer. Those clinics are greatly reduced and there is an 18-month waiting list to get to them. The Government says it has spent €2 billion on the HSE during the Covid pandemic but it is certainly not getting to the people of Mayo. What message does the Tánaiste have for all those people who are waiting in pain for procedures?

I did not say it was not about beds. I said it was not just about beds. There is more to healthcare in Ireland than hospital beds. Many services can and should be provided through general practice and in community settings. The Deputy can feel free to misrepresent me for the next five years. It is in the nature of her party to do so-----

Tánaiste-----

-----and I am sure that modus operandi will continue from that particular party.

I ask the Tánaiste to just answer the question.

We had been making significant progress on waiting lists prior to the pandemic.

For many months, if not for more than a year, we were seeing reductions in the number of people waiting for an operation or a procedure and reductions in the number of people waiting to attend an outpatient clinic. It was still a bad situation but we had been going in the right direction and then came Covid-19, which changed everything. It meant that much normal healthcare had be suspended to prioritise Covid-19 care or because it was not safe. We need to get all that back on track again now, but it will not be easy and it will take time.