Overall hospital waiting lists reduced by 3% last year, according to new figures.
The target reduction was 10%.
A significant increase in the number of patients being added to waiting lists is the reason given for the lower than planned reduction.
However, 2023 was the second year in row that national hospital waiting lists fell, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said.
There are 57,000 fewer patients waiting longer than the agreed Sláintecare target of ten to 12 weeks, he added.
Sinn Féin noted that this means that 470,000 people are still waiting longer than that target.
The party's spokesperson on Health David Cullinane said that "the twin crises of overcrowded emergency departments and long waiting lists cannot be sustainably tackled without significant investment in hospital infrastructure".
Without that capital outlay, 2024 "will be a lost year of squandered opportunity," he warned.
Specialist teams to assist struggling hospitals
Public hospitals under the most pressure in terms of waiting times and trolley numbers are being helped by the Department of Health to implement reforms that have improved other hospitals.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that specialist teams will assist struggling hospitals.
"I am not yet satisfied that the hospitals, at least some of them, are running the practices we see in Waterford, Portlaoise, Tullamore and other places," Mr Donnelly told RTÉ’s Six One.
"It’s happening on an ongoing basis and we have specialist teams in various hospitals but it’s not just capacity. It’s capacity and reform," he said.
Minister Donnelly pointed out that the number of patients waiting longer than 12 months fell by 32% last year.
While the average waiting time for an outpatient appointment fell from 9.7 months to 7.5 months, a reduction of almost a quarter.
The most recent figures put the number of patients waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic at 580,000.
Figures published last month by the National Treatment Purchase Fund put the total national hospital waiting list for all services in November at 817,180 people.
Nursing home care report
Minister Donnelly also welcomed the publication of an ESRI report on nursing home care across the country.
He said it has started a conversation on how nursing home care across the country can be improved and how it will be staffed and funded.
"I'm not satisfied that the balance between private beds and public beds is right.
"It’s about 80% to 20% in terms of private beds to public beds and it used to be the other way around. There is a place for private provision, I think we need to invest more in public provision," he said.
