Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

One of the heart-rending and appalling cases that shocked the nation when it featured on the "RTE Investigates" programme last Monday concerned one of my constituency cases. Sarah-Ann Mitchell, who is 11 years old, was diagnosed with scoliosis in July and still does not have an appointment. I submitted a parliamentary question to the Minister on 20 December on behalf of her mother, Karen, which was batted off to the HSE on 17 January. There has been no reply. Sarah-Ann's consultant says her spinal curvature has increased by 10% to 60% since July because of the delay. She is suffering greatly.

See this speech in context