The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has been asked to devise an urgent plan to cut hospital waiting lists for gastrointestinal checks by 1,500 this year.
Minister for Health Simon Harris has said he wanted to see the NTPF reactivated and asked it to produce a plan before the budget to cut endoscopy waiting lists, which are currently at over 19,800.
An endoscopy is a procedure used to check a person's digestive tract.
The hospitals with the longest endoscopy waiting lists are Beaumont with 2,764 waiting, Naas with 1,922 and Galway University with 1,818.
Minister Harris said that overall waiting lists were "unacceptably high".
The latest national waiting list figures from the NTPF show that Galway University Hospital has the longest lists in the country, with over 42,900 patients waiting for an outpatient consultation, or inpatient or day case care.
Other hospitals with very long lists are Beaumont Hospital with 32,715 waiting and the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital with 31,296 waiting.
Nationally there are over 517,000 people waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic for the first time, or for inpatient or day case care, according to the latest figures for June.
It compares with a total figure of 485,280 for June last year, up by 31,720 patients.
In all areas, waiting lists have increased, compared with this time last year.
The national figures are broken down as follows: 420,545 patients waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic, 76,696 waiting for inpatient or day care treatment and 19,850 waiting for a gastrointestinal check.
The speciality areas with the longest lists, for inpatient or day case treatments, are ophthalmology 12,483 and orthopaedics 10,983 and general surgery 10,489.
For outpatient appointments, the longest lists are for ear, nose and throat treatment with 54,221 patients, followed by orthopaedics with 50,514 waiting and general surgery with 35,030 waiting.
Nationally, there are 15,149 patients waiting 18 months or more to be seen at outpatients.
Also 3,038 patients are waiting 18 months or more for an inpatient or day case treatment.
This article has been amended as it was mistakenly reported that there is a waiting list for an endoscopy at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin. There is no waiting list for endoscopy at the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin.
