Every day is men's day.
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Right, on that note-----
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You took me aback there, a Cheann Comhairle.
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The case of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a child in need of spinal surgery who was left to wait for years in agony and who died on 29 July this year, has been raised many times on the floor of the Dáil, and I raise his name again with the Taoiseach today. In the summer of 2024, Harvey was removed from the spinal surgery waiting list by Children's Health Ireland, CHI. In August of 2024, his parents found out, quite by accident, that he had been removed from the list without their knowledge or consent. They fought really hard to get him back on the list to finally get him the surgery he needed. He had been left to wait for so long that his spinal curve had reached 130 degrees. Harvey suffered, his parents Gillian and Stephen suffered, and now they suffer the worst pain of all, having lost him. He was only nine years old. Gillian and Stephen have consistently asked how, why and when Harvey was removed from the list and why his agony was extended and his treatment delayed. They got no answers, only spin, lies and deception, until a whistleblower from within CHI came forward with the truth. The answer to Stephen and Gillian's question was sent to the Minister for Health in a protected disclosure on 31 August and to the HSE on 12 September, but it had been known to many senior managers within CHI long before that. The truth is that Harvey was deemed fit for surgery, following an assessment made by an outside consultant from Great Ormond Street Hospital on 17 May 2024. A decision was then taken, just weeks later, by CHI to remove him from the list and describe his future care as palliative. The whistleblower has identified each step of this scandal, which left a small, vulnerable child to suffer and deteriorate. This is just the latest, and I think the most devastating, episode in the failure of children with scoliosis and spina bifida who needed spinal surgery. Successive Ministers for Health, including Simon Harris and the current Minister, have failed these children. Now is the time for accountability. The Government has failed at every level to get to grips with this scandal, from its failure to keep the first promise that no child would wait longer than four months for surgery, to its failure to deliver care and treatment to these children and its failure to give frank and transparent information. It was widely known that Harvey was deliberately moved from the waiting list despite being fit for surgery. His parents did not know, though. Nobody told them. They were left in the dark despite their pleas and protestations and despite meeting with the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health. They found out in a Sunday newspaper why Harvey was removed from the list. How can they or any other parent now have any trust in the Taoiseach or anybody else entrusted with the care and treatment of their children? Harvey was wrongly and deliberately removed from the list. Did this happen to other children? Is there now a commitment to deliver a full statutory inquiry to get to the bottom of this case and others? What does the Taoiseach say to the parents of Mikey Henry Benson, a child in Mayo, who were told by CHI that there was no treatment for their child and to simply take him home and make special memories with him?
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That is astonishing.
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That is what happened.
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One of the fundamental problems here is that there has been a strategy or an approach of delay, delay and deceive adopted with these parents in the case of Harvey. He was removed deliberately from the waitlist. That decision was taken despite the fact he had been judged fit for surgery by an outside consultant. That happened. The Minister knows this because the protected disclosure arrived on her desk on 31 August and arrived to the HSE on 12 September.
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There is nothing legally to prohibit the Minister or anybody else in receipt of it to study and absorb that protected disclosure.
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I am very glad there will be a statutory inquiry. I hope the Government gets the terms of reference right but I am deeply troubled by the fact the system can act to deceive and delay, to leave parents entirely in the dark-----
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-----and to leave small children to suffer. There is never accountability for this. As a matter of fact, the great irony is that the only person who has suffered within the system as a result of this is the whistleblower herself.
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I will raise that again on another occasion on the floor of the Dáil.
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What is very clear on that?
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It is not.
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It was addressed to the Minister.
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I am aware of all of that.
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No, I am aware of that.
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Please, go ahead.
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Yes, it was addressed to the Minister.
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There was nothing stopping her.
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No, the law does not stop you.
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There is an alarming lack of curiosity at a minimum.
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You are misrepresenting the legislative process.
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