Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. He is here to deal with a very difficult subject. I acknowledge Senators Doherty and Seery Kearney, who worked with our group to put forward this Private Members' motion. It is crucial that the Minister sees that motion calls for action on the part of the HSE in the context of these families that are awaiting surgery. It really is about taking urgent action to make alternative arrangements in order that families and children are not waiting any longer. It is an extremely difficult situation that we and the Department are in.

There are multiple challenges and questions that arise. The Minister has pushed for the publication of reports.I am aware of that. The Department has pushed for open publication of these reports on the activities in the children's hospital.

We will need to consider the steps we can take. Obviously, there will be steps taken to evaluate and examine all of the activity and what needs to be done in regard to that. That is one part of this. The other part is how we move forward without increasing the waiting list time and requiring children to wait for months and months. Are there ways we can look at this in order to move some of it forward?

We need excellence in orthopaedics. We need to know that medical devices, implants and so on have gone through all of the necessary procedures. In terms of the HPRA and so on, we know the regulations around medical devices. When it comes to clinical trials we know the time involved and how important they are in order to get to approval, including FDA approval. The process is thorough. What has occurred here is something that will require close examination.

How do we move forward from this? The Minister's insight will be appreciated. When it comes to research, there are considerations around ethics, such as ethics approval and committees. They exist in most universities which work with hospitals on research studies when they consider carrying out tests, pilots and so on. Ethics approval is required for a certain type of research. This is something separate within a hospital. We need to know the policy around ethics and so on.

The Minister has heard from many of us in regard to this Private Members' Bill. The key ask comprises two parts, namely the examination of what occurred and the actions that need to be taken. Most important is how we can move things forward for families who are awaiting surgery to deal with curvature of the spine. We will be here to listen and support the Minister on that.