David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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66. To ask the Minister for Health if she has ensured that plans are in place to safely and appropriately staff the new children’s hospital to ensure there are no delays following handover from the contractor and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10078/25]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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This question concerns the new national children's hospital and the preparedness of the State, the Government and CHI for what will be a decanting of staff from three hospitals into the new children's hospital. People want to be assured that the June deadline for completion will be met but also that the Minister and the Government are on top of the project, the contractor, the board and the handover because it is really important that we have as smooth a transition as possible from those three hospitals to the new hospital.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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There is a significant ongoing programme of work to prepare for the opening of the new hospital, including integration of the three hospitals and operational commissioning. This operational commissioning includes the clinical fit-out for the entire hospital, total digital integration and staff training to ensure the hospital can open and accept patients safely and also that the workforces and cultures of the three hospitals come together.

There are approximately 4,500 staff working across Children's Health Ireland. This is an increase of 26% since 2019. An extensive training plan is under development to support the transition of current staff to the new hospital. Since the definitive business case was finalised in 2017, the workforce plan for the hospital has been revised multiple times to take account of service developments. I am advised that there is active engagement between the HSE and CHI to revise this plan to take account of further service developments and ensure the right workforce is in place to staff the new hospital. This is something that will need to be revised continually as the population grows and as we build capacity, so I anticipate that the workforce plan will continue to evolve and grow.

I understand that there is broad agreement on overall numbers required and every effort is being made to bring this process to a conclusion as soon as possible. Any additional staff needed will be sought as part of the annual Estimates process in the context of overall prioritisation of available funding. Over the next number of years as the population grows, that must grow with it and that is our intention in an appropriate way but, for the moment, the workforce plan is there.

Regarding the opening of the hospital, I am assured by the builder that we will have the building at the end of June. I received that assurance verbally when I was there last week with the Northern Ireland Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt. I am assured by BAM that we will have the hospital at the end of June, which is what it committed to publicly in January. The hospital has advanced very considerably - even since I was there last October. We have agreed early access for CHI. I might pick that up in my supplementary reply.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I very much hope it is a case of 15th time lucky regarding that commitment and we see it handed over in June. I have a letter from 12 surgeons who work in the department of paediatric surgery, which I raised previously with the Government. In it, they talk about how the national model of care for paediatric surgery clearly outlines the need for 17 paediatric surgeons by 2028. It goes on to say, "we are very concerned that the recommended workforce of 17 paediatric surgeons has not been included in either the definitive business case for the new Children's Hospital, nor in any of the estimates over the last few years". It went on to state that, "this repeated lack of engagement and commitment to address the concerns of the department of surgery has left us with no option but to refer the letter to you [and many others in the HSE]". Is that the case? We cannot have a situation where we have a state-of-the-art hospital but we do not have the paediatric surgeons needed. All of us in this House know about all the surgeries for children with scoliosis and spina bifida and many more that urgently need to be carried out so we need to be assured by the Minister that those 17 consultant surgical posts will be in place by 2028.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I am advised that there is active engagement between the HSE and CHI to further revise the workforce plan. The question of staffing in all the specialisms has to come within the workforce plan. I appreciate that between now and the opening of the hospital, we might get several such letters from different specialists who are, understandably, trying to make the best case they can for the best resources for their area but this can only be delivered within an overall workforce plan and the budget for that.

While we might have different instances over time, that workforce plan is absolutely essential and that is what we have to work towards in the first instance.

On the broader commissioning of the hospital, early access in April has been agreed. I am currently assessing the CHI plans to move in and what will be done on a month-by-month basis to ensure that we have delivery of the hospital for patients in 2026. At the earliest possible safe time in 2026 patients will be moved. I am assessing that pretty rigorously at the moment.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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If we do not have enough paediatric surgeon consultants, it creates problems. The Minister knows we have the ongoing Nayagam review and the review by HIQA into the use of springs. There was a media report this week of an audit that was commenced in April of last year conducted by an NHS consultant on the back of very serious allegations made by whistleblowers, including that operations on children were being done purely for financial gain, that osteotomies in two of the three children's hospitals have now been suspended and that potentially there could be a recall of up to 561 children. Is that the case? Has she, as Minister for Health, investigated this? It is a very serious issue on top of all the other reviews which are ongoing and it feeds into the need for more consultants, more staff, proper training, proper oversight and proper accountability. I am alarmed that we have this report, which I have not heard Government respond to yet, that potentially operations which were unnecessary have been carried out on children. We need to be assured that this has been properly investigated. Has the Minister seen this audit report which has been published? Has she sought it? What action will the Government take on the back of the allegations which have been made?

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I am anticipating that report but I have not received it yet. I have not been presented with it yet. Of course, I will look at it immediately. There are a number of different issues that are not the same thing. One is the report, and we will look at the issues that are particular to that. The others are the resources and the increase in the number of consultants, which is quite considerable as the Deputy is aware, and making sure that we have the best workforce plan for the hospital in the first instance and into the future. They are two distinct things and I would not like to conflate them because no matter how many consultants we have, of course, we have to make sure that every consultant and every person working in the health system is working in the correct way. We may need to separate the issues in the review, which we will look at and I am sure the House will look at in great detail, from the overall workforce plan for the hospital for the future.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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If there is a draft report, the Minister should have seen it and she should be asking for it.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Yes, but-----