The Irish Hospital Consultants Association yesterday published data on waiting lists for University Hospital Waterford. Some 50,000 people are on some form of health waiting list, the majority of whom are waiting to see a consultant. What is obvious about the figure is that it is huge and affects people from across the region. It is the equivalent of the population of Waterford city. Patients from across the south east use the hospital.

For years, many of us in this House, including some of the Tánaiste's Government colleagues, have been pointing out that there are clear capacity deficits at University Hospital Waterford. Five years ago, at a meeting of Oireachtas Members, we were promised a new eye clinic, a new orthopaedic centre of excellence and additional bed capacity. None of those came on stream. The catheterisation laboratory, which has long been promised, is still being built and is not open. While we are looking at additional capacity in healthcare, and I support every additional cent and bed that goes into the system, can we also look at regional inequalities?

Waiting lists are far too high. That was the case before the pandemic and they have got considerably worse as a result of the pandemic and the cyberattack. We need to turn the tide in that regard and ensure those waiting lists and waiting times improve over the next couple of years. I absolutely agree that we need to look at the regional disparities. There will always be regional disparities to a certain extent but there should not be gross regional disparities where people in one part of the country have to wait much longer than people in other parts. We will have to take that into account.