Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is very important. The issue has been going on since the boy was born. I raised it with the Department in March after meeting the family for the first time. I have seen very different experiences in regard to surgical emergencies in Crumlin hospital. The decision in this boy's case cannot be about waiting lists. I have brought a child in with septic arthritis, which is an orthopaedic emergency, and surgery took place four hours later, at 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning. In this instance, there is a child with his urethra in the wrong place. He is nearly two years old. Apart from the medical side of it, the developmental impact for that child in terms of growing as a human being and being able to participate in Montessori school and other things as he grows is surely of an equivalent measure to other emergency cases. I cannot understand how the hospital has not acted.

I will speak about this case privately with the Minister but it is important to state here that it is not just about broader waiting lists. This boy is at a delicate developmental stage. His case has to be a developmental emergency as much as a medical emergency. I thank the Minister for the offer to continue the discussion privately. It should not have to get to the stage where we are raising individual cases but I thank him for his response and the offer to engage.

See this speech in context