Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I have one minute to respond. I appreciate that the Minister of State, out of respect for the process, has undertaken to respond. I want him to know that we have 150 disabled children in need of complex spinal surgery. Children like my son are being allowed to deteriorate because of a vendetta by the board of CHI against two senior surgeons who raised concerns about the mistreatment of Irish children. We have it within our gift to resolve this problem today but the Minister is refusing to do so. It is a rhetorical device to say that this is a matter for CHI. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, can give authority to CHI or the HSE but he cannot cede responsibility. The Minister is responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen in his Department, and these 150 children are on him. He did not show up here today. Nobody from Government, apart from the Minister of State who was here to take a different matter, showed up. Another Minister of State came in to respond to questions about listed buildings for An Post but no Minister will not come in to respond to a Commencement matter on children with disabilities. That is because children with disabilities and disabled citizens in Ireland are considered to have less human value than other citizens. That has been my lived experience and it has been the experience of these families. One of the parents rang me last night, and I could hear his child in bed in pain in the background. She could not go to school, I could hear the mother trying to explain to the child that her daddy was on the phone to a Senator to see if he could get help for them.