An outgoing Southern Health Board member, Mr Simon Coveney TD (FG), said he could not accept claims from the health board that front-line services were not being affected in Cork and Kerry when a six-year-old boy had to wait over a month to go before a committee to have a shoe support replaced so that he could walk properly.
The support cost less than €100.
The overall spend on orthotic aids and appliances in the Southern Health Board had been cut by €100,000 to just over €268,000 in 2003, it emerged during a debate on the issue.
A father had come to see Mr Coveney as he needed supports for his young son so the boy could walk properly. He had been told the request would have to be considered by a panel and that panel was not meeting for six weeks.
Mr George Mullan, a hospital consultant and health board member, described the waiting figures of more than 140 for prosthetics and adjustments at St Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital alone as "scandalous".
Meanwhile, waiting lists at hospitals in the health board area have continued to grow. In Cork University Hospital, there are almost 800 people on the in-patient waiting lists and over 4,100 on the out-patient lists.
At Tralee General, the figure for in- patients has now reached 130, and there are 2,752 on the out-patient waiting lists.
Mr Seán Hurley, chief executive, said waiting lists were going up because of increases in population and growing demand.
The board did not have the funding to avail of full staffing levels.