Hospital waiting lists reached a new record high of over half a million people last month.

It is an increase of 27,000 since May – when Simon Harris became Minister for Health.

Figures from the National Treatment Purchase Fund show 439,000 are outpatients, with more than 80,000 waiting for over a year.

But 88% of all adult patients are treated within the national target of 15 months, according to the HSE.

Liam Doran, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, says it shows the health service is underfunded and under-resourced:”We won’t tackle the waiting lists without additional investments in health.

“That means additional bed capacity, additional diagnostic abilities and additional staff.

“Until the Government realises that those waiting figures will continue to creep up, and the division in Irish society where the public patient has to wait and the private patient is able to get fasttrack access will only increase in frequency and that is absolutely wrong and immoral.”