Hospital waiting lists for public patients have been a persistent problem, despite the periodic injection of so-called "waiting list money" by successive governments.
The waiting lists include only people who have been determined by a specialist as needing an in-patient procedure. In addition, public patients frequently have very long waits for initial appointments with specialists.
The Department of Health records only the numbers of patients waiting up to, or more than, 12 months for treatment. There is no analysis of how long their wait may exceed 12 months.
Waiting lists are periodically reviewed in a so-called "validation" exercise to see who remains on them and how many have died, improved or opted to pay for private treatment.
When the Minister for Health periodically announces a drop in waiting-list numbers, the Department does not provide any analysis of figures. Last month, when a fall in waiting lists was announced, Cappagh Orthopaedic Hospital near Dublin revealed that of the drop of 522 in its waiting list in the preceding six months, over 300 names had been deleted as a result of "validation".