Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our witnesses this morning and thank them for coming before the committee and giving us of their views. How can the group in Cappagh that has been successfully catered for and managed successfully and satisfactorily be applied to other children in the various cohorts? How can the witnesses bring it to a satisfactory conclusion in a short time? Every parent watching a child suffer and in acute pain suffers along with the child. As we all know, the child is not in a position to do something for themselves. Children do not understand why they have to be on a waiting list and why they have to wait interminably while preparing for the surgery that should be available to them. How can we apply the approach right across the entire cohort, and what is required to do so? Is it possible to provide a fall-back system if something goes wrong in one area and there is a hold-up such as a lack of theatres or medical or surgical staff? To allow the waiting lists to grow is appalling in the 21st century. We should not have this situation. I want to know now whatever is needed to be done to achieve that.