Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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The name of the report, Falling Behind, explains it all in terms of children's rights and we are in 2024. I wish to follow on from what the Chair was talking about with regard to mental health, the Mental Health Commission and CAMHS. Was that clinical audit of all the CAMHS teams ever done? I ask because in my former position as a member of the mental health committee here, which was a very strong committee, it would get into the nitty-gritty of things. Unfortunately that committee dispersed but what worries me here is what Dr. Muldoon said about how even with a new clinical director, if we are going to use the same ingredients to make the same cake, it is not going to change the taste of it and so there will be nothing different. That will be an absolute disaster. I also looked at the report from 2022 and in going through all the sections, whether it was child poverty, health, mental health or school places, I noted that as Deputies, each of us has what is called a constituency dashboard. I can go into this in my office, click into East Cork and into my own town of Midleton or click into a village down the road, such as Ballynacorra as an example. I can go into it and can tell how many kids of a certain age group are there.

I can tell how many kids have autism or special needs. All the data is there and a ten-year plan could be devised detailing what is needed in the next decade. If we have easy access to it, and this was all census data, the data is surely over 90% accurate and is a massive template.

Going back to children's rights, I have a case here that is very frustrating. A lady who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of three also had an issue with her hip. That girl is now 17 and she has not received a hip operation. She has gone through the whole children's section for the last 14 years and there has always been an excuse, such as were the operation to be done, it might clot, she is not strong enough or she is too weak. The poor child was brought the whole way through until she hit 17 a number of weeks ago and she is now in the adult section. Consequently, she is starting again. I met the family here a number of weeks ago. I went through the documents and they are fairly extensive, but after the fifth page it was clear what was happening. I do not know if it is within the HSE that it does not have the capability to carry out the procedure and it uses it as an excuse, but the mental torture for that child and for her family for 14 years is absolutely disgraceful. On her first appointment in Dublin, she was told that if they did operate, she might never walk again. Yet I know of a doctor in the United States who can do a operation and who claims the girl will walk in six weeks.

Is there a system within the ombudsman's office for this issue - because I know it is limited? Even for that girl, how could the ombudsman get to it? I have approached four separate Ministers and still have not received a response for this person. This is only one case. I know of a very similar case where the child is seven now and the family is getting the exact same excuses. Is there a way of investigating things like that? I know it is a lot to take in now and it is new to the witnesses but it is very frustrating for me and for the family.

Is there a way to hold to account those who are responsible for making these excuses? I call them excuses and I might be wrong, they could well be correct but yet I have the last clinical report from that child's assessment and a surgeon in the United States stating this and that are incorrect, that is untrue and that the surgeon can deal with clots and does this all the time. I am here as the public representative trying to get answers for that family. I have been sidewalled within the Department and within the Ministers' office and yet I have no way of going into the HSE and asking what is happening here? Is there power within the remit of the Ombudsman for Children to investigate something like that?