Hospital waiting lists lengthened by 9 per cent in the last quarter of 1999, according to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
He blamed much of the increase on the nurses' strike in October, and said that in September, before the dispute, 33,555 people had been awaiting procedures.
According to yesterday's figures, there were 36,855 people on the list in December, almost the same as the December 1998 total of 36,883.
The Minister referred to "extraordinary circumstances in the last quarter of 1999" as causing the increase in the waiting lists.
"It is disappointing that the good progress that had been made in achieving a 9 per cent reduction in numbers over the first three quarters has been undone," he said.
He was attaching great importance to reducing waiting times, both through adopting an integrated approach and addressing long-term infrastructural matters such as developing step-down rehabilitation and long-stay facilities to reduce pressure on the acute hospital system.
Mr Finbar Fitzpatrick, secretary general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, rejected the notion that the nurses' dispute in some way excused the figures. "Industrial relations problems are no excuse for having people waiting outside the hospital gates," he said.
The Fine Gael spokesman on health, Mr Alan Shatter, said there had been an increase of 30 per cent in waiting lists since the Government came into office in 1997, and that waiting times were on the increase also.
Labour's Health spokesperson, Ms Liz McManus, said the figures were a "damning indictment of the Government's health policy".
"Despite the fact the Government has increased health spending by 45 per cent since coming into office, the number of people has soared inexorably . . . it beggars belief that a Government with so much money at its disposal has failed to make any inroads into reducing hospital waiting lists," she said.
On RTE radio the Minister said he was particularly concerned about the numbers waiting for ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgery and cardiac surgery. Both had increased since September but were down by 10 and three per cent respectively on the figure for December 1998.
With 7,486 patients, ENT was the category of surgery for which most people were waiting. This was followed by orthopaedics, ophthalmology, gynaecology and plastic surgery.