Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and Members for facilitating me. We are here today because of the heroic efforts of the parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida, because of their determination and because their love of their children. We are also here because they never stopped fighting tooth and nail. In particular, we are here because of the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, Stephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt. They found the will, even when grieving the loss of their son, to take on the Government. I cannot imagine the suffering they have been through or even fathom as a parent myself how to find the strength to keep fighting. They want to know how their son and many others could have been failed so badly by the State and why children continue to be failed in the most horrifying ways. The removal of Harvey from surgical waiting lists to be treated as a palliative care patient without any discussion with his family is the most recent, shocking piece of information to come to light. What else remains hidden? What other cover-up is there in the hope it never sees the light of day? Let us be clear: a public inquiry is no one's first choice. People want public services to work for the State to function properly. When things go wrong, people want a system that can respond. Instead we have a system that is threatened by transparency and allergic to accountability and that looks to protect itself at all costs. When all else fails, people expect the Government they elect to be on their side, not to turn a blind eye to their suffering; a Government that takes responsibility, not leaders that default to spin and deflection when people are crying out for help.

Eight years ago, Deputy Simon Harris, when Minister for Health, promised that no child would be waiting longer than four months for scoliosis surgery. That promise has never been delivered. It is a shameful chapter in this State and it is not over. How could this ever have happened? How could failure get stacked on failure without any accountability or action? The HSE was set up in 2005. It was billed as some type of innovation at the time. However, it created a buffer between the Department of Health and the Government on the one hand and the health service and the people within it on the other. At the time, Dr. Liam Twomey, a TD representing Fine Gael said: "One can only imagine the scapegoating that will be due to the CEO of the HSE when the Government fails." Last year, the then Taoiseach of this State, Deputy Simon Harris, fulfilled that bleak prediction. When it was put to him that he and his Government had actively, consistently and comprehensively failed children with scoliosis and spina bifida, that children's spines twisted and curved, leaving them in agony as little rib cages pressed against lungs making it more and more difficult to breathe, and that children were left waiting so long that they became inoperable, he said, "It was said to me by the then director general of the HSE that the executive would have put a plan in place to ensure that no child waited longer than four months." The Taoiseach of the day, a former health Minister, said he was only the messenger. Someone told him that they would make a plan and it was nothing to do with him. That is why we are here today. That is why we need a public inquiry. It is because of gross political failure, a failure of leadership. Children and families have been left with no option. A public inquiry is their only hope. It has to deliver the answers. It has to deliver accountability and real change. That is why the process needs to be fully independent of CHI and the HSE.

I commend every parent and family, every loved one of those children who have been failed by this State. We on this side of the House commit on behalf of Sinn Féin never to give up and to continue their fight.

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