Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Déanaim comhghairdeas leis Tom Hickey and I wish everyone a happy Christmas.

I want to remember Private Seán Rooney, who was killed in the cause of peace. He gave his life in the cause of peace on this day last year. It was a death which "pierced the heart" of his family, as they said. In the context of everything that is happening in the Middle East, we have a proud tradition in this country of peacekeeping. I am proud of the contributions that our Taoiseach and Tánaiste have made, and the moral leadership they have shown in calling for an enduring ceasefire.

I also want to talk about love and suffering. I want to talk about the children who are not receiving complex spinal surgery as we speak. It is an issue that I have raised in the House several times previously. I have received more correspondence from the parents of children who are not receiving spinal surgery. This year in Ireland, no child with spina bifida has had a kyphectomy or complex spinal surgery for scoliosis. They are being left on waiting lists. One child is within 8° of a scoliotic curve that is inoperable. I know of at least one other child, since I raised this issue in the Seanad, whose condition has also become inoperable. Like the children in Gaza, their lives are forever blighted. Treatment delayed is a life denied. I have spoken previously about the parent who wrote to me about his son. He said "They just want him to pass away quietly. They do not want the international medical community to see the condition that he is being allowed to deteriorate to in Ireland."

Today, children are not getting a second opinion after the suspension of surgery by Children's Health Ireland. They are not getting a second opinion and they are not being informed who their consultants are. In this case, we know that they do not want to give the kids an independent second opinion or a task force, because they know that the international medical community would be appalled at the condition that we have allowed disabled children to deteriorate to. They are the only cohort of Irish citizens who do not get surgery, and it is because they are disabled. As I have said here previously, disabled citizens are seen as having less human value than other citizens. That is the love and suffering of parents like me, who see our children deteriorate before our very eyes. I am asking my colleagues in Government parties, who have power, to set up a task force immediately in order that these children can be operated on and to set up a statutory inquiry to establish precisely why disabled children are allowed to deteriorate to the condition that they are in this country.