Hospital waiting lists have increased by 45 per cent in two years, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has told the Dáil.

“It is a very sad indictment of what has been going on over two to three years in terms of policy, initiative and a lack of basic urgency in dealing with this crisis,” he said on Wednesday.

He said there were 415,000 people waiting for outpatient appointments, 62,000 of whom were waiting for longer than one year.

There were over 75,000 people waiting for inpatient hospital treatment and there were 4,500 children waiting for appointments in the three children’s hospitals.

“One would think that when it comes to children that we should be moving might and main to eradicate those waiting times and to shorten them dramatically, particularly in terms those waiting more than a year,” he added.

The cause of the problem, said Mr Martin, was the decision to mothball and destroy the work of the National Treatment Purchase fund in 2011. This fund was set up by Mr Martin when he was minister for health.

Prior to that the average waiting time for elective patients was two-and-a-half months, he added.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said waiting lists were never satisfactory, adding the programme for government contained a commitment to improve waiting lists, particularly in the case of those waiting longest.

He said the Department of Health would engaged with the national treatment purchase fund to deliver on €15 million in funding for an initiative targeted at those waiting longest.

This was part of an investment of €50 million a year to deal with waiting lists.

The HSE, he added, was planning a dedicated waiting list initiative which would be rolled out later this year.