Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to make a small contribution to this debate. I pay tribute to the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, people like Claire Cahill of the Scoliosis Advocacy Network, the parents of Mikey and all those campaigners who time and again have brought to the fore the issue of the scandalous treatment of children with scoliosis. We should not know the names of these children. They should be able to live their lives in peace and not have to continually waive their anonymity and beg for every tiny bit of attention to get the treatment they need.

Families have been advocating, as I am sure the Minister will agree, for far too long. I imagine they are worn out. This issue is not new. This is not even the first or second scandal that relates to this area. Children have been utterly failed by the State and successive governments. When I looked back at the record, I saw that the first time I raised this was in 2016.

In 2017, I debated this matter with the then Minister for Health, who is now Tánaiste and Minister for Finance. The debate started with a reference to the great efforts of campaigners like the Scoliosis Advocacy Network. The staff in RTÉ were thanked for highlighting the issue. The then Minister thanked me for raising this serious matter and for giving him an opportunity to update the House. This, of course, was following on from an RTÉ programme. As often happens, people have to go to the media to bare their soul to get any attention from the Government. The then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, continued:

I assure colleagues that improving scoliosis services is an absolute priority for both me and the Government. I am monitoring closely - indeed, on a weekly basis - the progress being made on addressing waiting lists

He said that "the HSE and the Children's Hospital Group have confirmed that they are committed to ensuring that no child will be waiting over four months". I emphasise that the then Minister for Health said that he would be monitoring the waiting lists not on a monthly basis but "on a weekly basis". What happened? The attention of the Minister was right on this "on a weekly basis". He confirmed it in the Dáil. What happened? Hopefully the inquiry will get some answers because parents have waited for far too long. They have been let down by far too many health Ministers and I really, genuinely hope that they get the answers that they so desperately need.

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