The number of people on hospital waiting lists declined by 4 per cent to 25,105 between the end of December and the end of March. The fall in the year since last March was 5 per cent.
In a statement accompanying the figures issued last night, the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, made no mention of his election pledge to eliminate waiting lists within two years.
"I will continue to keep the focus on hospital waiting lists to ensure that significant progress is made in reducing waiting times for public patients," he said.
"I am now allocating the remaining €16 million to health agencies available under the Waiting List Initiative in 2002 to tackle hospital waiting lists.
"This brings to €43.8 million the amount of dedicated funding provided in 2002 under the Waiting List Initiative. I have also provided funding of €30 million for the Treatment Purchase Fund in 2002 to purchase procedures for public patients."
The Treatment Purchase Fund can pay for treatment for public patients in private hospitals, in public and voluntary hospitals with spare capacity and abroad.
The figures issued last night show significant gains in some areas. There has been a reduction of one-third in the number of adults waiting for more than 12 months for ear, nose and throat procedures and for ophthalmology procedures in the year to March.
There was a rise of 324 in the number of people waiting for surgery in the year. However, the number of people waiting for heart surgery fell by 183.
The biggest fall in waiting lists was achieved by the Midland Health Board (down 33 per cent in the year). Other reductions were in the Western Health Board (down 28 per cent), the Mid-Western Health Board (down 20 per cent) and the Southern Health Board (down 9 per cent).
This last figure represents a sharp fall in its performance in the year to December, when it achieved a 28 per cent reduction in its waiting lists.
Last month The Irish Times reported that the fall in waiting lists in the Southern board had been exaggerated because of an error in the compilation of statistics. However, the SHB refused to say by how much the fall was exaggerated or whether the errors had been happening for months or for years.