Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

I welcome the decision to fold CHI into the HSE. We called for it a number of months ago. However, a number of serious issues have not been dealt with yet.

First, I raised the case of Harvey Morrison Sherratt with Simon Harris about a year ago when he was taken off the waiting list for surgery. Simon Harris told me he would find out how many other parents and children had been taken off that list. A year later, I have not received that information. Critically, 230 children are currently on that waiting list. In January this year, €11.6 million was given for those children to be able have operations abroad. Right now, no children are scheduled to have operations abroad. Despite the fact that we have gone through an horrendous summer as regards difficulties children have had and that the money is sitting there, some dysfunction is stopping those children going abroad for those operations. CHI has still not published its 2024 report, which is quite incredible, the Minister must agree. I understand CHI is also sitting on a big pot of money that it is not using for the benefit of these children.

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