Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for circulating the Order of Business, which I am happy to support. The first issue I wish to raise concerns scoliosis. The Leader has engaged on this issue. There was an Oireachtas joint committee meeting on health recently. It is a very sad situation. We have made very little progress despite requests for the Minister to come to the House. The Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, came to the House twice. I do not know whether the second performance was worse than the first. It is not personal. He had a message to deliver for the Department but the reality is that we need targets and timelines for families and their children. It is quite an odd situation. Families told me yesterday that some of their children, particularly teenagers, are on lists with adults for services. There should be a designated children's list. That is important. The chief executive of Children's Health Ireland, Eilísh Hardiman, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health that proposals for HSE funding are being developed and that it is hoped to increase capacity in Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals and extend paediatric orthopaedic services in Cappagh. We know the care for children for scoliosis and other orthopaedic conditions is inadequate and unacceptable. I cannot keep saying that here. We all have that view. I also know the context of the larger challenges in the health service. I want to be fair to the Minister and acknowledge the enormous difficulties around health anyway. When I looked at the committee transcript yesterday, I saw an account by another professor who said that children with spina bifida who were awaiting surgery have now gone from walking independently to using wheelchairs, from full-time school to home school and from wearing shoes to having open sores with deformities with no date or time for their surgery. That is terribly sad and that is what a professional is telling us. I would like us to focus this issue in the new year with a real emphasis on trying to get the Minister in to explain to the families. I understand that he had a brief encounter with some of the families the other day, which is positive, but what they really want are timelines and a commitment regarding the dates, resources, etc.

I also wish to raise the issue of peat, an issue pursued by the Leader. I would like to see some outcome. I know the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, announced yesterday that there would be €1.69 million in funding for research into alternatives to peat but this is not viable for a number of mushroom growers so I hope we could reactivate that issue in the new year. I appreciate the difficulties the Leader has but she has been an advocate and I want to acknowledge that.

Senator Kyne was talking about the Civil Service needing to know and determine its pensions. We will have a debate later on today about secretarial assistants and I will not tell the House what they can expect because I have it in front of me and I will put it on the record of the House later. It involves what five, ten, 15 and 20 years of service, respectively, equate to in terms of a pension calculation. It is a disgrace. It is appalling and is something we should not have. While I share Senator Kyne's concerns regarding permanent civil servants, these people are not permanent. We will have an opportunity to discuss that later and I hope we will have the support of all parties in this House to show solidarity with secretarial assistants working in this House.