On behalf of Sinn Féin, I also want to wish Teresa well and thank her for her years of service to all of us in this House. I wish Noel and Liam well in their new posts.

Today, some 84,000 people over the age of 75 are languishing on hospital waiting lists, an increase of 80% since 2014. The Government cannot blame the pandemic on this because before we knew about Covid, these lists were rising rapidly, by a shocking 10% per year. More than 25,000 people over the age of 75 are waiting a year for a first hospital consultation. Hospital overcrowding is now at record levels. Emergency departments are overflowing. We should all bear in mind the shocking fact that 4,500 people aged over 75 have been waiting in emergency departments for over 24 hours thus far this year. The CEO of the HSE said yesterday that the Government waiting list plan is already challenged by this overcrowding. What is the Government going to do to tackle the lengthy waiting lists and deliver timely health care for our older citizens who it is clearly failing?

At the outset, I want to join with the Ceann Comhairle in offering my thanks and congratulations to Teresa Doolan. I worked with her in the Department of the Taoiseach, over here in the Oireachtas. She now moves across St. Stephen's Green to the Department of Justice. I wish her and the new officers taking up their roles the best.

If I may, I would like to take this opportunity to, on behalf of the Government, express our condolences to the friends and family of Oleksandr Zavhorodniy, a 45-year-old Ukrainian man who lived in Ireland for the past 20 years and worked in Aldi in Sandyford. He lived in Stillorgan and sadly lost his life defending his home country of Ukraine from Russian attack. I want to express our condolences to his friends and family on his death and acknowledge his bravery in going to Ukraine to fight for his country. He fell as a hero on the battlefield.

Regarding the question raised by the Deputy, I acknowledge that waiting lists for healthcare in Ireland are far too long and have been for a long time, long before the pandemic and the cyberattack. In the past few weeks, the HSE published a waiting list action plan that sets out in detail the actions that will be taken to reduce waiting lists. We are confident that, through its implementation, we will see the tide turn before the end of the year and start seeing waiting times falling. It is to be hoped we can action that plan, make it happen and see the tide turn before the end of the year.