The Health Minister says he expects to eliminate those waiting for a long time for in-patient and day case procedures by the end of the year - but the trolley crisis in A and E is compounding the problem.

At the end of October last year almost 60,000 people were waiting for elective surgery - and Leo Varadkar says the numbers will go up further.

He's told the Dáil that he has a plan to reduce those waiting a long-time for a surgery by the end of the year - but that it is going to get worse before it gets better:

Last week, the Fine Gael TD defended the coalition's healthcare record, following a meeting of the Emergency Department's taskforce.

The Health Minister says that up until the summer, the overcrowding problem was improving, until a spike in the numbers of patients on trolleys at the beginning of the year.