Nessa Cosgrove (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. It is good to see a senior Minister here. This is the second time that she has come in, which is appreciated. I commend Senator McDowell and the rest of the Independents on bringing this Bill forward. It is unfortunate that it has to come to this, as Senators have outlined clearly. Well done. It is long overdue.

I thank Senator Clonan for outlining what he did. It cannot be easy to stand up in the House and tell a personal story like that. I know how much it has affected him and his son. I thank him for giving that insight to us.

Parents have said that scoliosis squeezes the life out of their children as they wait for treatment, be it surgery or not. The issue has come up many times. Early detection, diagnosis and treatment, which I hope will come from this Bill, are important. For far too long, hundreds of families living with scoliosis have felt ignored by the State. Despite promises made in, I believe, good faith by the then Minister, now Tánaiste, in 2017, Children's Health Ireland has failed to provide the focus required to address the waiting lists. People, especially children, who have scoliosis deserve to be prioritised. Their unnecessary ongoing suffering and premature deaths cannot be tolerated or allowed to continue.

We all know that delaying a required response to any problem does not help matters. The opposite is true. Delays have caused more suffering and we have seen cases where they have resulted in death. I am sure this Bill will be enacted and I have no doubt it will be. We are lucky that we have the Minister at the forefront of this. I know she will support the Bill. It is important that the State recognises that resources such as the €19 million allocated to alleviate the suffering of children are correctly and appropriately applied. That funding, no matter how well spent, was asked for and granted specifically to reduce the waiting lists. It is important that there is clarity about where it went and where it was spent. Regardless of whether it was spent on other areas of children's health, it is important that there is clear information about it. It should have been spent on helping to reduce waiting lists. I hope this Bill will ensure that happens.

As Senator Clonan said, it can take approximately 250 hours for a qualified nurse to train for spinal damage care and 18 months for a surgeon to complete higher specialist training. This is key. I may be moving to the second part of the Bill in this regard. The training, recruitment and retention of appropriate levels of suitably qualified staff have become a matter of obligation for the HSE. The HSE has already conceded this through the formation of a specialist spinal multidisciplinary team for the particular needs of those involved in scoliosis treatment and care. I am glad that the Bill will, in effect, compel the HSE to plan for, staff and maintain this level of staff in the HSE. We have seen in other areas in other public spending Departments that the focus can sometimes be put in jeopardy if areas in the HSE are changing or there are structural changes in the HSE. When this Bill is enacted, it will hopefully ensure that the focus has to stay on the treatment of scoliosis and that there will be a rights-based approach to treatment.