Sinn Féin says Harris should apologise for outpatient waiting lists

Sinn Féin says the Health Minister needs to apologise over the latest outpatient waiting list figures.

Over 550,000 people are now waiting for an outpatient appointment in hospitals across the country, according to the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

103,000 of those are waiting 18 months or more.

Sinn Féin health spokesperson Louise O'Reilly says the number further underlines the incompetence of the Government.

"We saw during the CervicalCheck scandal the Minister was very quick to tweet and not so quick to come back into the Oireachtas and apologise which is what he should be doing over the long waits," said Ms O'Reilly.

"Long waits are now the norm and I think what we need to do is we need to ensure that people do not accept this.

"It's not normal to wait 18 months for a procedure. It's not normal for over 100,000 people to be left waiting - in agony in many cases - and certainly worried."