Over 412,000 people are waiting for outpatient appointments - the highest figure ever recorded.

According to the National Treatment Purchase Fund, which collates waiting list data for public patients, at the end of April, there were 412,422 people waiting to be seen in outpatient clinics.

Over 83,000 of these have already been waiting for at least one year, while almost 3,000 have been waiting for at least three years. Some 778 have been waiting for more than four years.

The figures include almost 25,000 children, 3,879 of whom have been waiting for at least one year. In Temple Street Children's Hospital in Dublin, 10 children have been waiting for an outpatient appointment for more than three years, while six children have been waiting for more than four years.

Meanwhile, over 67,000 people are waiting for inpatient or day case treatment, with 9,433 of these waiting for more than one year.

The hospitals with the highest inpatient/ day case waiting lists include Galway University Hospital (9,766 people waiting), Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, (6,025) and Dublin's Mater Hospital (5,768).

The figures include almost 3,000 children, 361 of whom are waiting more than one year.

However, these figures exclude people waiting for inpatient/day case gastro endoscopies, as these figures are dealt with separately. Altogether, 14,519 people are waiting for this procedure, 516 of whom have been waiting for more than one year.