Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome our guests from Western Australia. They must be surprised that we enter the water with the temperatures we have here, but we do in great numbers.

I want to raise again the issue of the waiting list for scoliosis surgery and all the multiple issues with Children's Health Ireland. I am very disturbed to read in the newspapers and online accounts of more small boys and girls, who are really suffering because of the extent of their spinal curvature. Their parents are putting up pictures of them because they are absolutely desperate for help and an intervention that does not seem to be coming. One young girl was told that her lung function is now 45% and because there was not a surgical intervention within the therapeutic window, she will never have full lung function. I know, as a parent, when your child's lung function is compromised. How can we accept in this republic, when we are awash with money, that a disabled child is told, "Hard luck, your lung function will remain at 45%"? I ask everyone to think how life altering and life -limiting that is. I am also hearing that there are similar issues with the urology list. Urology surgeons who are trained in the United States to the highest international standards are telling me that the interventional pathways for urology are not being implemented in Ireland and we are outliers. For young disabled men and women who go through adolescence, their little genitals are not developing properly which will lead to infertility, erectile dysfunction and a lack of an ability to have a normal sexual relationship.This is so cruel. It also rapidly and dramatically increases the risk of colorectal cancer and other cancers. We are doing this to disabled children. What is going on?

I also see under CHI's watch the massive overruns with BAM, the construction company. It has completed its works on time and on budget with Intel and other massive infrastructure projects, so what is going on with CHI? At every level, there needs to be a very thorough risk assessment of the moving of very vulnerable patients from Temple Street and Crumlin hospitals to the new children's hospital. I do not have confidence in that.

I have asked the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, to come to the House for Commencement matters. He does not come into this Chamber. For that reason, we need to table a debate to get in here the Minister or the Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, who has set up a Taoiseach's committee on disability, to answer these questions. The surgeons tell me that if one were to put our children onto an Airbus and fly them to Canada or Boston, it would cause an international scandal because the international medical community would look at them and ask what country would allow children to deteriorate to such an extent. We are complete outliers and we need answers.