Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)

Yesterday, the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and the families of children affected by the scoliosis crisis gave a presentation in the audiovisual room. Mothers told of the deaths of their children and of the continuous extreme pain many children felt and others told of lungs and stomachs being crushed and their children being disabled for the lack of treatment. Images were shown of rods that were inserted breaking through the skin of the children. We heard about children suffering from infertility and higher rates of cancer because of the lack of treatment. The parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a nine-year-old boy who died during the summer having waited years for an operation, also spoke in the audiovisual room. The Taoiseach must recognise it is outrageous that parents in such a circumstance have to pour out their grief over and over in the public domain to shock the political system into dealing with this issue.

The group also spoke about the toxic management culture in CHI and the bullying of staff and parents. One parent alleged that CHI falsely referred their child to Tusla because that parent was active in seeking treatment for their child. We were told of the spending of taxpayers' money without oversight, the insertion of unauthorised springs into children, hundreds of children going through operations that were not necessary and other hundreds of children on waiting lists. We were told not all of this in the past tense; much is still in the present tense.

CHI has descended into dysfunction over the past decade because of a lack of transparency. Twelve reports have been written about CHI many of which are still not published. Many of them castigate the continuous disaster within that organisation.

In 2017, Simon Harris promised that no child would wait longer than four months for an operation. This was not an exceptional promise. It was a promise to implement an international norm. Simon Harris failed in that promise and so too has every single Minister for Health. There is no accountability without a cost for wrongdoing. Real accountability can be the catalyst for change. This is an issue the Government keeps missing. This Government is allergic to accountability.

Look at the ballooning of the national children's hospital. Today, we learned in the newspapers that the completion date for this €2.24 billion hospital will be missed for the 16th time, an incredible situation.

Next week, we propose to table a motion of accountability. The Government brought forward a motion of confidence to this week. It is a cynical political trick to ensure voters will not be thinking about the Government's abysmal record with these children when they go to the polls in the presidential election. The timescaling of any debate by a government on that basis is absolutely wrong. I ask the Taoiseach to tell the families who have been campaigning that there will be a statutory public inquiry with the power to compel people and parents.

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