Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

It is almost unbelievable for two reasons that we are having today’s debate. First, because there are so few children affected by the measure and, second, because the procedure under discussion is life-altering and is also time-restricted. It is criminal that parents have had to turn themselves into full-time campaigners. I welcome their initiative. I recognise that their drive has resulted in our providing time to discuss the issue today. It is not the first time that the members of the group are in the House. They met with the HSE in March and May. They worked out a plan along with Beaumont Hospital so that they would be ready for this year’s budget. They met with the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, in May and they attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children before the summer.

Everybody was sympathetic and listening, but the Government has turned around again today and stated that while this is a priority, it will deal with it as a project plan. The information has been given in the House that the children in question have a very short window of opportunity to access the treatment that is the norm in other societies. If the nerve is not stimulated within a certain period, it will die. Time is critical and project plans are not what is needed. The affected individuals need the system that has been devised to be put in place. There is no excuse for not doing so.

We have talked about vast sums of money in the past few days. Implementing the programme requires a capital investment of €7 million and an annual fee of €4 million in the early days. Coincidentally, this is the equivalent of the amount we waste putting poison, fluoride, into the water supply. The Government could have a win–win set of circumstances in which it could fund the implants for free and transform the lives of the children concerned at no cost to the Exchequer. There is no excuse for further delay.

See this speech in context