Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I remind the House of the situation that confronts hundreds of disabled children who are still languishing on waiting lists for complex spinal surgery in Temple Street and Crumlin hospitals. To add to this injury, there is the assertion that they will not be referred abroad for treatment. We rightly raised the issue of the children who are suffering in Gaza, thousands of whom are dying, but there are children in this country who are being left to languish and are deteriorating. Some of them have become permanently paralysed since these surgeries were suspended. There does not seem to be any urgency when it comes to restarting surgery. I received an email that is typical of the emails I have been receiving from parents of these children. It stated:

I just don't want time to run out on my son. They will not refer my son to Great Ormond Street simply because they do not want them to see what's happened to him in Ireland. It's an absolute national and international disgrace.

This is what the parent of this young boy said: "They need my son to pass away quietly". That is what we are putting parents through. What makes these children the only cohort of citizens in the Republic who are not receiving this treatment is the fact that they are disabled. I have said it before and I will say it again; we do not value the lives of our disabled citizens in the same way we do those of other citizens.

There are also ongoing reprisals against the whistleblowers - the two surgeons who came to this House and gave evidence at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters and the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth about the problems that are being caused. A misleading article published in The Irish Timeswas clarified in subsequent articles. The reprisals against whistleblowers and the targeting of surgeons have to stop for us to get to the root causes of the problems. I hope the Chief Medical Officer of the HSE, Dr. Colm Henry, has no role in setting out the terms of reference of the independent inquiry. Having learned from the mistakes of previous independent inquiries, the inquiry must engage with the parents, the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and others and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Think of these children and their families and the suffering they are undergoing at the moment.