The Health Minister says the length of hospital waiting lists is unacceptable.
A €350 million plan to tackle waiting lists this year will be published later this week.
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Currently, almost 18,000 have been waiting for an inpatient procedure for more than 12 months, while 155,000 have been on the outpatient waiting list for more than 18 months.
Minister Stephen Donnelly admits the 2022 plan is ambitious.
He said: "We ran a really successful waiting list plan for the last three months of the year last year. We have a very ambitious waiting list plan for this year, I've allocated €350 million between the HSE and the National Treatment Purchase fund. It is ambitious, but we have to be ambitious."
