Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was out knocking on doors in Kilcock over the weekend. I met a lovely older lady in a lot of pain, who was waiting for an operation for a new knee. We got talking about the national scandal of people in pain waiting, waiting, and waiting. I told her about this motion and about the lovely day I had in my constituency office a couple of years ago with David Cullinane when we met children with scoliosis. As it happened, I had met one of them in Prosperous the day before. While Elisa has had her scoliosis operation, she is now waiting a year for a sleep study so that she can have the orthopaedic work that she needs, post-op. She is still waiting, waiting and waiting.

Anyway, I took the bull by the horns. I asked this woman if she would be willing to wait longer for her operation so that children with scoliosis would not have to wait. She said of course she would. It is a no-brainer. Of course it does not apply because the either-or scenario does not arise. However, my conversation with that lady confirmed two things for me. The first is that in the general population, people are disgusted at the way children are being left in pain with their organs crushed due to the state of their spines. They are in an agonising level of pain because of the state of the health services on the watch of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael health Ministers. Second, it showed me that social and intergenerational solidarity is still so strong. It is strong despite the fact that the powers-that-should-not-be continually pit the generations and other sectors of society against each other. People are sick and tired of waiting and are sick and tired of seeing their children and grandchildren waiting for the basics in health services, in this case, for a spine that is not crushing their children's organs. They want change, not change for the sake of it, but change for the better.

I want to recognise the outstanding and compassionate work that my colleague David Cullinane has put into these children caught in this nightmare of suffering. David is not a glory seeker. He wants to get to work on these children because he knows they cannot wait any longer. I want to welcome Lisa and Eddie from south Kildare who are in the Gallery and also my constituents, Úna Keightley and her son Seán. This is your Dáil, Seán. It is your health and your future we are discussing. That starts with political priorities and in Sinn Féin we will prioritise you.

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