Fine Gael has demanded that time limits be set within which patients would be seen and treated as part of proposals for dealing with rising hospital waiting lists.

It calls for "proper" financial allocations to the health service and the immediate appointment of medical personnel because of the huge number of unfilled vacancies.

Introducing a private members' motion deploring the "scandalous increase in hospital waiting lists" the party's health spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, said "bed closures should not be used as a budget-balancing exercise".

But the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, rejected the criticisms and said the Government was dealing with the waiting-list crisis created by the previous administration. He said the Government was committed to dealing with the issue, "but it will not attempt to do so in any short-term knee-jerk manner".

Mr Shatter said: "It is shocking that in this day and age cardiac patients die while on the cardiac surgery waiting list." A total of 827 adults were waiting for cardiac surgery for more than 12 months, while 47 children were waiting for cardiac surgery for more than six months up to the end of June.

He said 1,477 hospital beds were closed during the summer months, and further autumn cutbacks were being implemented by hospitals. He believed the hospital waiting lists had risen from 34,331 at the end of June, the latest available figures, by more than 3,000 to 36,500.

Mr Cowen said it was clear that many patients were waiting too long for surgery, but this figure had to be set against the total number of patients who had been treated over the past year.

"In 1997 there were over 535,000 in-patient discharges from acute hospitals and a further 250,000 day cases. The waitinglist figures of 34,331 represent just 0.6 per cent of all in-patients and 1.3 per cent of day cases seen in acute hospitals last year."

Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Roisin Shortall, said the Minister was presiding over a health service which was falling apart. She highlighted the "unacceptable" numbers of children on waiting lists. There were 2,413 children waiting for in-patient treatment for more than six months, while a further 1,721 children had been waiting for three to six months.