Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Can we start again? I raise the case of a 14-year-old boy in Tralee, Daniel Collins, who, like thousands of other disabled children in Ireland, is not receiving the support, therapies or surgical interventions he needs to grow and thrive as a young man. He is 14 years old, he has autism and cerebral palsy and, since August 2024, he has been categorised as an urgent case for spinal surgery. His scoliotic curve has now increased to beyond 90°. If that continues, it will render him inoperable. For the last long eight months, over the autumn, the election, Christmas, January, the inauguration of Donald Trump and the arrival of spring, through all those rites of passage that family have been left completely in the dark with no review other than to say he is an urgent case. Like Mikey Henry, whose case I raised her last week with the permission of the parents, who attended, Daniel Collins is struggling for breath. His kidneys are being affected so he is having renal problems. His breathing is compromised. Like Mikey Henry, and as was the case with the my son, he is at risk of becoming inoperable. I am sorry to say Mikey Henry, whose case I raised last week, has been deemed inoperable. That is in this country. For shame.

I am going to come in here every week. These parents are begging for the cases to be raised and brought into the public domain because that is what you have to do in Ireland to get any attention. I am very frustrated by it and I am very upset by it. I absolutely reject the idea that anybody whose case we raise here somehow has their privacy or confidentiality compromised. They are screaming out for help. Do you not understand that? Excuse me, I am upset. Daniel Collins is from Tralee, County Kerry and Mikey Henry is from Mayo. This is a countrywide problem. It affects every single person in this House. All Members have constituents who are being failed in this manner. The reason they are being failed is Ireland is the only jurisdiction in the European Union where disabled citizens do not have the legal right to surgical interventions, therapies and supports. We are the only one. Even in Trump's America these people have a legal right to treatment, but they do not have it here. Surely we can use our collective will to enact legislation to vindicate their rights. That will then compel CHI and the HSE to do what we are asking them to do. Every single person in this room has the same frustrations I experience with the HSE. They are recidivists, they are incorrigible and they will not do what they are charged to do as agents of the State but they will-----