Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply but it was an elaborate response to a question I did not ask. This is about children with complex needs. The Government's mechanism for dealing with these children is simply to move them from the primary list to a suspended list. These children do not need an action plan or another working group; they are in pain and need surgery. Is this lost on the Minister of State? What these children and their parents need from the Minister for Health is a timeline for treatment for those on the urgent list; confirmation of when the theatre in Crumlin children's hospital, which is currently only open three days per week, will be open five days a week; an explanation as to the reason only one child has received treatment abroad, although they were told this mechanism would be used to address the waiting lists; and if will he commit to an independent clinical review of the cases we have raised, namely, the children who are on the urgent list, the children that have been forgotten and those who are in the most pain?

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