Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the parents from the Happy New Ear campaign in the Visitors' Gallery, the medics at Beaumont Hospital and, particularly, the irrepressible and legendary Dr. Viani, who not only does her medical work but has been so much a part of the campaign.

This is not a party political issue and it should not be a political issue at all. The fact that Sinn Féin has introduced the motion is a detail. What people need to focus on is the content of the motion. It makes three statements which are uncontested. It recognises that bilateral cochlear implants are the best approach for a deaf child. It is the necessary intervention to give hearing to children who are deaf. It also states, which has not been contested in the Dáil, that because of the development of the auditory nerve there is a window of opportunity to make the intervention for small children and this window closes at approximately the age of eight. It also states that the costs envisaged in giving second cochlear implants to approximately 200 children are modest. In recent days we have spoken about hundreds of millions and billions of euros. Decisions on sums of money of this magnitude have been debated in the Dáil and decisions have been proposed. In the case of these children, we are looking at a potential spend of approximately €12 million or perhaps €13 million, and even the Minister has conceded that all of these moneys do not have to be found up-front.

We find ourselves in a very bizarre situation in which the Government and the Opposition - Independents, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party - all recognise that the children need bilateral implants, that a clock is ticking for them, and that the costs involved are modest. Anybody with an ounce of common sense would look in and wonder why a debate is even under way on the matter. Why does it take a Dáil debate for an uncontested matter to be sorted out?

I am disturbed by the term "business case", which has featured in the discussions today. I appreciate absolutely that, in the spending of any taxpayers' money, there has to be a plan and accountability, and there cannot be waste. However, I am greatly troubled that we have to make a business case for the health of our children. It bothers me, and it would really anger me, if I were the mother of a deaf child, to hear that a business case had to be presented, picked over and approved to allow for my child what is a fundamental health intervention and a fundamental right, namely, the right to hear.

I am not a medical expert but I am a mother. I remember, when my second child was born, that at one stage there was some query about the quality of his hearing. Subsequently everything was fine for my son, but I remember the kind of panic we had at the time in bringing our new child home, and the worry that there might be some difficulty with the child's hearing. It is worthwhile for all of us to put ourselves in the shoes of parents who bring their new babies home in the knowledge or to discover that the child has profound hearing issues and deafness. Today's debate is not about politics; it is about decency and humanity. It is not about looking for gratitude from children or their parents; it is about doing what we are elected to do. To my way of thinking, if we cannot pass a motion on which all of us in this Dáil agree, and which will provide such a transformation in the lives of hundreds of children, I wonder why we are here.

The Minister, Deputy Reilly, has a very big budget to manage. He has to make big savings and in some cases big cuts, he tells us, but this is a modest sum of money. I do not believe for a second that the Minister wants the 200 children who could avail of this second implant to go without that. I have no doubt that Members in government have their frustrations from time to time, and I have no doubt that some of us on the other side of the House are very often the source of those frustrations. However, what they on the other side have that we do not have is the ability to finally take the decision and to give the instruction to the system to do the right thing. I envy them that. I can tell them, if it were my call or the call of any of my colleagues, financial constraints or not, budgetary concerns or not - dare I say it, health overspend or not - the €12 million needed for capital expenditure, resourcing and staffing to make sure these children get their second implants would be found, whether we have to beg or borrow. I recommend that to the Minister. I say to him and his colleague, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, that whatever other priorities or concerns emerge, they must not let the opportunity of the HSE service plan go without an allocation to put things right, in as much as we can put them right for these hundreds of children.

I know many Members have had correspondence from parents. I received correspondence yesterday from a mother, who wrote:

My daughter is just three. She has her implant a year and it has been amazing to go through all the firsts - hearing her say "Mama", "Dada" and learn to understand what we say to her. ... A cochlear implant truly is a miracle of modern technology. We are so grateful for it. A second implant would give our daughter better quality sound, localisation, better hearing, so she can appreciate music, and focus on sound in noisy situations and block out the background noise.

We need to block out the background noise. We need to forget about party politics. We need to forget about politics entirely and focus on this group of children. I urge the Minister to do the right thing. If he does not do it, I am absolutely certain that the parents in the Visitors' Gallery are not going anywhere, because, like any parent, they will stand their ground and fight to get what their children so richly deserve.

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