Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin most sincerely for bringing this important motion on paediatric, orthopaedic and urology services before the Dáil Éireann here this evening. It is very important and I thank that party's members very sincerely for it. I welcome and support the motion. As it states, as of 13 February 2024, a staggering 327 children are on the waiting list for scoliosis related surgery with Children’s Health Ireland. This figure is a significant increase from the 312 children waiting in February 2017. The situation is dire and calls for immediate attention.

I welcome the people who were outside the gates of Dáil Éireann earlier this evening, and I thank Deputy Cullinane for his work in organising all of that. I welcome the people who are in the Public Gallery.

Unfortunately, the crisis in our healthcare system represents a litany of broken promises and unfulfilled commitments by the Minister for Health and the Government. In March 2017, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, made a commitment that no child would wait more than four months for spinal surgery by the end of that year. However, this promise remains unfulfilled.

There is one thing I would say about a political promise. If that was a promise to build a bridge, to make a new road or bypass, or to put an extension on to a public building, and if that promise was not kept, you could sleep the night without it being fulfilled. You could get along without that promise being kept, but when a person promises a child who is in pain, where the parents, the siblings, the grandparents and the friends are looking at that child in pain, and that person breaks that promise, that is bad. That is not proper behaviour. That is messing with people’s lives and with children’s lives.

If there was only a thorn stuck in your finger today and you could not get it out, would it not aggravate, hurt and upset you? It would only be a small thorn in your toe, but my goodness, I have seen at first hand the pain and the suffering little children with scoliosis and curvatures of their spine go through. I have listened to parents telling me and it is absolutely horrendous. Every bit of power we have in this State and every bit of resource we have should be channelled towards those 327 children who are on the waiting list for scoliosis related surgery. There should be no delay. Because of the fact they are little children and they are growing continuously, they need constant intervention and medical care. That is why breaking a political promise like that is not a venial sin; that is a mortal sin, and there is an awful difference. I want to highlight that.

I thank Sinn Féin again for the work it is doing in bringing this forward before the House and in giving us an opportunity to support the motion.

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