Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Hardiman for her presentation. Many of the technical questions have already been asked so I will not go through them again. We have all had a considerable amount of communication from parents of children who are suffering from scoliosis. I was struck by the situation of parents who contacted me. They ended up leaving the country because they were concerned about the care their son was going to get. I do not think they are the only ones. They were able to do that. I was really struck by that case. They were comparing the care they get in Ireland and abroad. Their son was preliminarily diagnosed with scoliosis in the womb and all these different things. They moved to Finland. I was struck when they told me about the comparison in the care they were getting in another country. I was struck by how far we are from where we need to be, which has very much been highlighted here. Those parents are confident they will get the surgery when it is needed. In Finland, all the medical files are available online for parents to see whenever they want. I will not even ask our guests to get into medical files and how they are made available online because I know there is a whole issue around that here in Ireland. We need to get there at some point. The hospitals in Finland are well staffed, modern and all of those things.

The technical questions having been asked, the main question I wish to ask is whether our guests think we have simply failed in our approach to children's healthcare in Ireland. Have we failed in our approach to scoliosis treatment? Is that a reasonable thing to say? From all the communication I have received and all of the frustration I have heard from parents, the overwhelming sense I get is that we have simply failed. Can our guests comment on that?

We are talking about specialist staff. During the previous session, it was mentioned that a particular kind of staff member is required. Those are people who are willing to work in a system. I worry about the best laid plans to get the specialist staff in an area when we cannot compete with what they would get in the private market. I was struck when it was said in the previous session that a very particular kind of person is required. How are we going to do that? How are we going to get away from what we have, which, as parents are saying, is a failed system? That was the case before Covid-19 and the cyberattack. I know there are plans and everything is laid out, but what comfort can we give to parents? I cannot comprehend the suffering parents are going through. They are listening to all of these plans and different things but their children needed care last year and two, three and four years ago, or before they left this country.