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

Ava Cahill is 11. She is from Tallaght in Dublin and she has spina bifida. She has been waiting for more than a year and a half for corrective surgery. As a result of this wait, Ava lives in considerable and daily pain because her feet have turned in on themselves and her condition is worsening. Her mother says that it is increasingly difficult for Ava to hold her splint in place. She needs this to keep her feet straight. Ava says it is increasingly difficult for her to do everyday things. Her feet keep getting caught in her pants when she tries to dress herself and she does not want anyone to see her feet. Ava, like every child, simply wants to do the things that her friends do. She so badly needs this operation. She said, "It would make my feet straight and I can tell everybody that my feet are normal." Ava's story is not unique. Some 90,000 children are on some form of waiting list. Hundreds of children wait for years for urgent, life-changing orthopaedic surgery for conditions like spina bifida and scoliosis. Many children with spina bifida wait for between one and four years.

Úna Keightley of the Spina Bifida Paediatric Advocacy Group outlined what this means for these children, stating, "They are having open sores and wounds. They are having skin breakdown and infection. There is extreme mental distress to their families and to the children themselves and some of them have actually become inoperable," because they have waited for so long. They are inoperable, having waited for a procedure to which they are entitled, but now it is too late for them. Orthopaedic consultant Dr. Connor Green told the Joint Committee on Health in November that children's potential is being destroyed, physically and psychologically, because of all of this. Due to the wait, children who once walked independently are now in wheelchairs. This is a failure of vulnerable children.

Time is of the essence. The longer these children wait for surgical intervention, the more complex the procedures they eventually need. The wait is ruining their chance and right to a normal life, free of pain. It is not good enough for them to be simply let be. Ní mór don Rialtas gníomh a dhéanamh i gcomhair na bpáistí atá ag fanacht ar obráidí spina bifida agus scoliosis. Ciallaíonn sé sin páistí a bhaint as na liostaí feithimh. Chinnteodh infheistíocht de €5 milliún go bhfaigheadh na páistí seo na hobráidí atá ag teastáil go géar uathu.

The Government could act today to end the agonising wait for these children, to get them off the waiting lists and ensure that they have the life-changing procedures they desperately need. For a relatively modest investment of €5 million, the additional capacity necessary could be delivered to clear these lists. This funding request has been with the Government and Minister for Health for two years. I want to know why this money has not been allocated. It is the best €5 million the Government could spend. It would make a huge difference to children's lives, free them from serious pain, improve their long-term outcomes, and relieve their families of the most immense stress and worry. Children should not have to display their agony, shed their tears on national television, or protest outside the Dáil to get the healthcare they need and which they are fully entitled to.

See this speech in context