Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

"Children were not protected from the risk of harm." That is the line that really sums up the HIQA report into governance failures at Children's Health Ireland, CHI, published this morning. The investigation was commissioned following revelations that non-approved springs were implanted in three children during surgery at Temple Street Hospital. My first thought today is with those children and their families.

This report is a damning litany of failure: failure of governance; failure of management; abject failure by Government to act and Ministers to do their job. This is, after all, the body that runs the major children's hospitals in this State and the failures were widespread and systemic. Children's Health Ireland failed abysmally to keep children under its care safe - in fact, it put them in harm's way. These failures cover every area - management, governance, risk assessment, ethics, informed consent - and happened because Children's Health Ireland is not fit for purpose and was allowed to carry on in that way.

There was no overarching framework for governance; different doctors were working at different hospitals under different rules; there were separate procurement processes across each hospital; and there were no proper checks or oversight of process. Parents were kept in the dark about the true nature of the surgeries carried out on their children and there was very poor follow-up care for the children involved. These are all the hallmarks of an organisation playing by its own rules, outside of normal practice and with zero consequences.

It is the responsibility of Government to ensure the most robust, effective and safe practices are in place at all our hospitals. The failures at Children's Health Ireland were known for years and known to Government and yet nothing was done. We are now witnessing this pattern of behaviour, dysfunction and scandal repeated again with regard to unnecessary hip surgeries on children. There must be accountability all round, including political accountability. These failures span seven years and two health Ministers and were raised many times at the very highest level and were raised here in the Dáil. Government stood back and allowed this disaster for children's healthcare to happen and to go unchecked. Caibidil cháinteach eile atá sa tuarascáil seo i dteip leanúnach an Rialtais ar leanaí le scolóis agus spina bifida. Cuireadh leanaí i mbaol in áit iad a chosaint mar ba chóir.

The trust of children and their families has been shattered. It was a case of all promise and no action from Government. Yesterday the parents of 14-year-old Daniel Collins went to the media to call for an end to their child's suffering. He has been waiting so long for surgery that he now needs two operations. He lives with pain so severe and chronic, he is forced to sleep upright and cannot lie on the flat of his back. Daniel is not alone. Despite a litany of promises, there are 233 children still waiting for spinal operations that could change their lives.

Today's report must now act as a catalyst for real and meaningful change.

The Government must, of course, commit to ensuring that all of the report's recommendations are urgently implemented. The Taoiseach must account for the Government's and the Ministers' failure to act. I am aware that the chairman of the board of Children's Health Ireland, CHI, has stood down. However, in relation to the remainder of the board and the executive of CHI, has the Taoiseach confidence in them?

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