Limerick East): Considerable progress has been made in reducing waiting lists for hospital treatment and the Government remains committed to the objective of further reducing waiting lists. The total public in-patient waiting list at the end of September 1996 of 31,519 is 21 per cent lower than the figure of 40,130 in July 1993 before the begining of the waiting list initiative.
However, I had been concerned that waiting lists for hospital treatment have risen over the past 12 months and, in line with my commitment to continue progress in this area, I made available an additional allocation of £5 million to tackle this problem. This brings to £12 million the total funding provided in 1996 for the waiting list initiative. The impact of the additional activity which is taking place as a result of this additional allocation is not reflected in the quarterly waiting list figures for the end of September.