Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)

It is more than two months since my colleague Pádraig Rice first asked the Taoiseach about disturbing reports of an audit of hip surgeries on children at three separate hospitals. Back then, the Taoiseach said the audit process was in its final stages. That was ten weeks ago. The parents of the children involved have received no further information since. They have been told the audit is in its final stages for months. The Taoiseach repeated that same mantra yesterday and refused to provide any timeline for the publication of this report. In fact, he bristled at the notion that he would even be asked the question.

Let us be very clear: the audit is independent, but that does not mean the Government should be totally in the dark about when parents will finally get some answers. If it is, this raises further questions about the Government's competence and control of this scandal. We had the ridiculous situation yesterday where neither the Taoiseach nor the Minister for Health were able to tell us how many letters had been sent to families by Children's Health Ireland. These letters are not connected to the audit, we are told, and have been sent to families whose children were operated on over the past 15 years. The Government is entirely ignorant about how many families may even be involved. That is really staggering. Has anyone in the Cabinet thought of picking up the phone and asking Children's Health Ireland and Cappagh hospital how many letters have been sent or is the Government too busy trying to maintain plausible deniability about the crisis to ask these basic questions.

The Taoiseach has accused Opposition TDs of trying to politicise this issue. Would he accuse parents who are desperate for information of the same thing? We are trying our best to get information for them. I have been contacted by parents whose children may be impacted by this and who are deeply distressed. They watched their children suffer terribly through serious surgery and now they wonder whether the surgery was necessary at all. Did their children go through all that pain and trauma for nothing? The least they deserve is a date for when these questions will be answered. The notion that no one can provide an indicative date is not just implausible; it is insulting.

The Taoiseach hinted yesterday that he knows more than he is willing to say publicly. He said the audit may be published sooner than we think. Will he stop with the evasion and level with us? When will the families involved have the answers they need? When will the audit be published? When the Taoiseach was asked yesterday how many letters had been sent to parents, he did not know the answer. Getting an answer on this should be straightforward. It is simply not credible that no one would have this basic information. The Taoiseach has had the past 24 hours to find out. Can he now tell us how many letters were sent out to parents whose children had operations over the past 15 years?

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