Brian O'Connell

We have about 120 MRI and CT scanners in total.

So obviously any increase in the number of scanners would make a significant difference to those waiting lists.

On the new National Children's Hospital site,

Three of the five planned MRIs, I'm told, and two of the scanners were commissioned on the site in the last six months.

They're actually in standby mode now.

The warranties on the equipment don't begin until the first patient use.

So that's some good news.

But the latest software packages and the upgrades, they will be installed, I'm told, before they begin that use.

But I suppose the question here really is,

At a time when waiting lists are growing, why is this equipment sitting idle by the time the hospital opens, maybe for three years, if you fast forward to next year?

And why is it sitting here on the site and not being used?

Now, David Cullinan, who's Sinn Féin's health spokesperson, he gave me his reaction to the fact high-tech diagnostic equipment is lying idle on this new site.

And I'm sure it must be difficult for clinicians who are looking at their paediatric waiting list for diagnostic services and they're hearing about state-of-the-art, top-of-the-range equipment sitting their line idle.

Yeah, because we had data up to the end of December last year.

So I was trying to find out, well, what's the picture over the last six months?

Because obviously it's quite dynamic.

It can change very quickly.

Partly why information is difficult to get is because for the past two years, a new national waiting list management protocol is actually being put in place by the NTPF.

Now, there's a pilot project up and running and some quarterly reports on how many are waiting are given to the Department of Health.

I'd asked the HSE.