Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

Like others, I want to first acknowledge the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt and all of the parents who were in the audiovisual room yesterday. I thank them for working with me and for engaging with me and indeed all of the advocates who are bringing to me the issues of today and yesterday. We will work together to devise the correct structure to enable a proper inquiry into the work that has happened and not happened in the CHI orthopaedic section. One of the most important comments I heard yesterday is that parents are nearly never wrong. I know that experience and that expression to be correct. Parents know what their children need. While I have so much respect for so many different areas of specialisms in CHI, such as oncology and cardiology, there has been, and continues to be, difficulties in the orthopaedic section in CHI, where we have got to change not just the practices and improve the processes, but also implement a real cultural change in listening to, respecting and responding to parents. I assure every Member in this House and anybody watching that I am putting every element of my energy and good faith into trying to improve that.

Deputy Simon Harris, the Tánaiste, is working with me to help to do that. He and I met parents and advocates very recently. We have responded to them by private correspondence. He and I will meet them again at their convenience in the next number of weeks. Like everybody else here, Simon Harris is a committed public representative. He is here to serve his constituents, his community and the Irish State. He entered politics at a young age for good reasons and he has devoted his adult professional life to serving his community. We are all here because we too are committed to the people whom we represent. We all act in good faith. The Government has a substantial body of work to improve spinal services and orthopaedic services more broadly in CHI. While steps have been made that have been noted here, I commit, as everybody else should, to improving the services.

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