Taoiseach Enda Kenny rejected a claim by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that the Government was adopting "a callous and dismissive'' response to those requiring surgery for obesity.

Mr Kenny said it was an issue to be dealt with by clinicians and he was sure advice was available to deal with the problem. “Clinicians know best about the urgency of carrying out an operation, if it is to be a life-saving operation, and I am sure it is on that basis they prioritise them,’’ he added.

Mr Martin said there were morbidly obese public patients who needed urgent intervention in the form of bariatric surgery. Clinicians had stated that such people needed that kind of surgery to save their lives.

He added that Minister for Health Dr James Reilly had rejected calls by Prof Donal O'Shea of St Vincent's Hospital to restore bariatric surgery to the hospital. Only 20 operations had been carried out at the hospital this year and it did not have funding to perform any more, said Mr Martin. He said the 200 people on the waiting list had been clinically assessed and were to have the life-saving surgery carried out.

The Minister, he said, had been “dismissive of the calls for the restoration of this surgery’’.

Mr Kenny said he was sorry if Dr Reilly’s language was deemed to be callous or uncaring by Mr Martin. He noted, he said, the Minister also stated “that one does not have sufficient resources available to do every operation that one might like to do’’. For that reason, he understood the clinician involved, who was a skilled person, carried out the 20 operations in the first half of this year.

“I am not competent to say on what basis they were prioritised, or whether those who were on the waiting list are in a more serious condition than those who were operated on or whatever, but I believe, as Deputy Martin does, that prevention is better than cure,’’ the Taoiseach added.

Mr Martin said the Taoiseach was insulting those who were morbidly obese when stating that prevention was better than cure.

Denying he was insulting anybody, Mr Kenny said was sure that Mr Martin would not want the Minister to take funding from other priority cases, such as those with cancer or leukaemia.