Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In a sector that is beset by perpetual crisis and all too regular scandal, this particular scandal stands somewhat apart, or, if it does not stand apart, it stands with a select few scandals as one of the worst in the history of the State. One of the perpetual crises that we have throughout our health service is waiting lists across every aspect of the service, be it emergency medicine, mental health services, social care in the community or surgery. It is here we have focused so much of our political energies in the past couple of years in terms of scoliosis, spina bifida and spinal surgeries in order to get this waiting list down, to get these children through those theatre doors, where we hoped and expected they would get the excellence in clinical delivery they deserved. Why this scandal hits so hard and so deep is because it was not about the waiting lists or about the crisis that we understand and see across our entire health service. It is because it happened in the theatre, where we all expect and put our trust that the delivery of clinical excellence is going to happen.

All of our thoughts have been with these patients - these children - and their families and advocacy groups in the past eight days in particular, as this has burst onto the national political airwaves. I know the Minister was away last week but it is very disappointing that it is eight days after this news broke that we are now having this discussion. There is nothing in the Minister's statement that could not have been delivered to us and to families at some point last week, on Wednesday or Thursday, and we could have had the departure point from then rather than from now. However, we are where we are. The families and the advocacy groups feel they are being ignored, not being listened to and not being contacted, and if they make contact with the hotline, they are not getting a return call. This is unacceptable.

When it comes to the further external review and the terms of reference, the Minister mentioned in his statement that the further review is intended to go “as deep and as wide as is necessary”. He said, “The terms of reference for Mr. Nayagam’s review as drafted are intended to be further defined by him as he properly gets into his work”. To what extent could these terms of reference be further defined and expanded upon following the Minister and the Taoiseach’s meetings with the families’ representative bodies later this week? It would be good to know, when the groups meet the Taoiseach and the Minister, that their hopes of being able to inform these terms of reference will be listened to and that there will be actually a chance that this could happen.

I will have seven and a half minutes for questions later, which I welcome, but I want to put some questions to the Minister now. With regard to the fact that spinal surgeries are continuing, what is the status of kyphectomy in terms of those surgeries happening at the moment?

Mr. Nayagam’s review is on the wider issues of culture and governance. That is like asking how long is a piece of a string. How will that be defined? When we think of the use of non-CE-related devices, we are going back to 2020. Regarding the sourcing of these devices, how many people in CHI at Temple Street signed off on that? How many departments and how many sections? Is there anything that the Minister has found out in the last eight days on which he and his Department have been able to action in advance, without needing recourse to the further review? They seem to be quite procedural and administrative areas but they are no less concerning, given the number of people who would have had some kind of sight of what was happening. These are the kinds of questions to which we need answers from the Minister this evening as we go through this debate.

To conclude, I cannot over-emphasise enough just how forgotten, left behind, let down and angry these families feel. It is almost, if not without peer, one of the worst scandals that has ever hit our health service. We all need to be more conscious that waiting lists are one thing, but if you get to the end of that list and if you get through that door, if you are not getting the excellence and competency of care that is required, then our health service is unfortunately in a much greater crisis than we believed it to be. I look forward to questions and answers later.

See this speech in context