Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cullinane for tabling this motion today, and for the solution and plan he has brought forward on this. More so, I thank the children who, as Deputy Cullinane mentioned, made a long journey - some in pain - to be here with us today. I genuinely hope this is the last time we ever have to go outside the gates of Leinster House and look at dozens of children, some of them in pain, asking us as politicians and asking the Government, begging it - as one wee girl held up in a homemade placard, to "Stop Our Pain".

That is the strongest message that could be given to this House today because they have battled, and their families have battled, every single day. We know that for children with disabilities, it is a battle a day. It is the most common phrase you hear from families and children with disabilities. For those who have scoliosis and spina bifida, it is a very real, lived reality, day in, day out. Deputy Cullinane outlined how things have deteriorated over the past number of years. It is impossible to describe some of those journeys and the individual stories they told us, with operations being cancelled, delays, operations not being successful and then having to wait years on end.

We had the commitment. We had the commitment in 2017, which was a very clear commitment that no child would wait for more than four months for treatment of scoliosis. That was seven years ago, and things today are worse, not better. Waiting lists are getting longer, not shorter. Over three quarters of the children are waiting more than those four months that Deputy Simon Harris talked about, another broken promise with devastating consequences for the lives of children the length and breadth of the country, who came here today from Donegal, Waterford, Galway and all over.

Children deserve better. They deserve no more broken promises. Sinn Féin has tabled a motion today not just on its own behalf but after engagement with parents, advocates, medical health professionals and social care services about the plan that is needed and the way forward to make sure that what we have - where children are coming here and saying "Stop our pain" - never has to happen again.

The Minister and the Government need to do the right thing. They need to stop breaking the promises they make in here. They have a pathway that is laid out to them by Sinn Féin and I urge the Minister to withdraw his amendment, support our motion and start to make the decisions that are needed for all of these families and children the length and breadth of this State.

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