Pledge to end hospital waiting lists quietly dropped

The Promises: CHARLIE McCREEVY may well live to regret his letter of reassurance on health to Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan just days before the elections.

It read: “In relation to health, I can confirm that the health boards are receiving increases of 15-18% each this year, enabling significant service development in each area. There are no cutbacks being planned or implemented.”

Whatever about cutbacks, Fianna Fáil set out its wildly ambitious target of permanently ending hospital waiting lists and bringing an extra 3,000 hospital beds on stream over the lifetime of the national health strategy.