Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This evening, we have gathered to speak about one of the most shameful failures of our health service in recent memory. God only knows how many children have undergone invasive, traumatic and completely unnecessary hip surgeries. We do not know, and that is the simple fact. We do not know exactly how many.

Children have been subjected to unnecessary surgeries and families have been left in the dark abandoned and betrayed. As a father of young children with experience of some of the hospitals under CHI's management, I can only imagine the anguish and fear these parents are going through. It is terrifying.

Audits show clear breaches of clinical standards. Even more shocking, and something that cannot be batted away this time, is the long silence that followed. Cá raibh an fhreagracht sna laethanta fada seo? Why was there a prioritisation of secrecy over a prioritisation of families being informed? We owe it to these families, and we owe it to the children who suffered, to act now and to act decisively.

We want to see a full and immediate publication of all relevant audits and reports. I reiterate that this scandal did not happen in isolation. The Government has known about these allegations for a long time, yet parents only learned of the audit after media reports. That is completely unacceptable. It is a systemic failure, and it is another systemic failure created by this Government. It is part of a litany of failures where children are being failed. We might look at the assessments of needs. Child homelessness has increased again. Special school spaces is an issue that has been brought up in this Chamber time and time again but is yet unresolved. The issues with children suffering with scoliosis, and child and adolescent mental health services have been well flagged inside and outside this Chamber.

Sinn Féin demands a full and immediate publication of all relevant audits and reports relating to the CHI scandal and a complete overhaul of governance structures at Children's Health Ireland. The high standards of governance we have been promised repeatedly, as families who access the healthcare system well know, is rarely a reality. Increased ethics and transparency standards and, above all, good governance, are now needed. I cannot be the only one who is completely terrified thinking about the kind of governance that will be in place when the new children’s hospital is finally finished.

I wish the Government all the very best to get the children's hospital up and running and for it to be a huge success, albeit a very expensive one. However, if the Government gets the management and governance of this wrong after all the time and money spent, no one will forgive it. I call on the Government TDs present to support our demands in Sinn Féin and support our motion this evening. Do not oppose the motion. It is a sensible, reasonable one that seeks to get to the bottom of this. We must protect our children and that begins today with truth, transparency and real accountability.

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