David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The report into Crumlin, in my view, has still not been published. There are other reports which have not been published which need to be published. For us to have confidence in understanding all of the problems, we need to see all the reports and the information behind it, as do the advocate groups. We cannot have anything other than full transparency. We cannot have anything other than full support for the families.

On the use of the implants and the springs that were unauthorised, it is for a small number of children but it is a very serious issue. There are processes in place in hospitals to ensure these things do not happen. The Minister outlined some of those processes, including the regulations. Fundamental questions need to be answered by Children's Health Ireland. I really do not believe this is about one individual. There may be culpability regarding a single individual, but I believe there are wider issues regarding clinical governance. In fact, looking at the reviews which have been published and the recommendations they made, it will be seen that all the issues they raise have been raised by advocate groups and parents of children for years.

How many times in this Chamber have we had debates on paediatric orthopaedic services? When the Minister, Deputy Harris, made the commitment in 2017 that no child would have to wait longer than four months, that rings hollow to those families today who are traumatised by what they are hearing. Many other families are wondering about their children as well. We have a duty of care to ensure we provide the very best services to them. While we have to get to the bottom of what happened at Temple Street and look at issues that may pertain to Crumlin, for which we are waiting until the report is published, with a review that has to be as wide-ranging as possible, we also have to have an eye to those children who are on waiting lists. There are more than 260 of them. There is a fear, because of suspension of services, that children will have to wait longer.

I will finish with this, because I think it is important. We have had a number of reports from the Office of the Ombudsman for Children regarding a number of children who have received treatment or delayed access to treatment. The most recent one was a child called Ivy. I met her dad over the weekend. He talked about the child waiting for five years and having to deal with that every single day, going on that journey with that child. He knew there would be real difficulties because of the length of time the child was waiting.

I put it to the Minister that it is not just about the surgeries but the aftercare. That child has received no physiotherapy since that procedure. She has been waiting for two years for hip surgery.

She has no idea when she will receive the hip surgery and the family are asking me to find out. There is no joined-up plan for continuity of care. In my view, these children have been abandoned, badly let down and badly failed. What the ombudsman said in his most recent report is that there was a litany of failures. The Government has to take responsibility for that. Once and for all, we have to stop the talking on this issue and put in place a plan to ensure each and every child with spina bifida and scoliosis gets the treatment he or she needs.

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