Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As today is budget day, I will have an opportunity to address the House later on my views on the budget that has just been announced.

I wish to raise two items on the Order of Business. The first is a radio interview I heard as I was driving to Leinster House. I am not sure if other colleagues heard it. One of my colleagues beside me is nodding. It was the story of a young boy, Adam Terry, and his mum, Christine. It was one of the most heart-breaking radio interviews I have ever heard. This boy who is ten years of age has been waiting for years for scoliosis surgery and he can no longer go to school because of the pain. He was told he would have his surgery in February of this year but it has again been kicked down the road a little further. The most heart-breaking and devastating part of that interview was to hear the news from his mum that because he did not have the surgery sooner, the surgery he will have at the some point will not produce the same outcome that it could have done. He will never be as well as he could have been had he got the surgery when he was meant to get it. He spoke on the radio, which was an incredible act of bravery for such a young child, about the pain he is suffering, that he cries himself to sleep and that he wants his voice heard. The reason he and his mum, Christine - they are a very private family - have done this is that they want those in a position to be able to do something for them to listen and to hear their story.

I ask that a letter go from the Cathaoirleach’s office to the Minister for Health asking him to contact that family immediately, to sit down with them and give them a date for surgery. I do not care what it takes. If we have to send that little boy to the UK and bring him home for the aftercare - whatever it takes to get him the surgery - that is what needs to happen. The word "disgraceful" does not cut the mustard, having listened to that boy's story and what his mum has to endure as she watches her child in pain every day. That is so wrong in a first world wealthy country. It should not be happening. They deserve to have that contact directly with the Department and the HSE.

The second issue I want to raise is Brexit. People will be aware it is back on the agenda, not that it ever went off it. Today, the UK's Brexit Minister, David Frost, will deliver a speech. Unfortunately, it is a day in advance of when the EU will publish its new proposals on the Northern Ireland protocol. That has been the subject of many months of negotiation, engagement in Northern Ireland, in particular, with citizens and businesses understanding the crux of the problem and what it will take to make the protocol work more smoothly, using what flexibilities we have to make what we have work better. That can be done.

It is unfortunate that here we are yet again - it is almost like Groundhog Day - at another cliff edge with another ramping up of tensions between both sides, but at the end of the day who loses out? It is not the politicians at the table making the decisions. It is the ordinary citizens and businesses on this island and in the UK.

An update on Brexit from either the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, or the Minister, Deputy Coveney, at the earliest opportunity would be welcome. We will see what happens over the next couple of days. One of the strong messages coming back from the engagement Maroš Šefovi has had in the North and with the Irish Government is that people are worried about matters such as having food on supermarket shelves, the customs union and imports and exports, essentially the general day-to-day working of the protocol and trading in what is a new environment. What they are not concerned about, or have not raised issues about, is the European Court of Justice having a say over the protocol, which was built into Article 12 of the Northern Ireland protocol. It was there from day one. Its job is to adjudicate on matters of European Union law, which is what the Single Market and customs union are. It is unfortunate that at this late hour a new issue has been thrown into the mix, which makes it very difficult to see this being solved in the near future.