The appalling ongoing treatment of children with scoliosis and spina bifida is absolutely disgraceful. This month is eight years since Simon Harris made that commitment that no child with scoliosis and spina bifida would have to wait longer than four months for life-changing and, in some cases, life-saving treatment. What has happened since is appalling, and it really shows how bad things were in CHI. Before I get to that, I want to acknowledge that there are some excellent staff working in Crumlin, Temple Street and Cappagh hospitals who do fantastic work because I have met many of them. They are as scandalised as I am and as the parents and advocates are because they want the best for children. If we look at what has happened since Simon Harris made that promise, more children have deteriorated, more children have got worse and more families have had to take to the media to highlight their children's cases. We have had scandal after scandal, and report after report. Let us look at some of that for a second to really digest how bad things were. We had a HIQA report that examined the use of unauthorised springs. As the Minister knows, that HIQA report was damning in relation to failures in CHI. It obviously identified clinical failures, and I accept those failures, but there were management failures, systemic failures and organisational failures. I would argue there were also political failures in all this because many of the issues that were identified had been raised by parents and by those of us in opposition and, in fact, by advocacy groups and I would say they were ignored. We had the Boston report. We had the Dixon report, which is still unpublished. As the Minister knows, the Dixon report talked about orphan children, by which it meant children who were falling through the cracks. They were not under one consultant or another. Their care was missed. They were not getting the multi-specialist treatment they should have been getting and so on. They were identified in that report as orphan children. Many more failings were identified as well. That report was never published. Even though it talked about a cohort or subset of children, I met a number of those parents this week in advance of this debate and they told me they still have not received that report and do not know what is in it, yet they know their children are mentioned. We had an Arthur Cox report that looked at the role of management in relation to, again, the use of unauthorised springs. We had the first part of the Nayagam review, which is still not published. We know there are findings in it. We know there are recommendations. We know very clear clinical failures were identified in that report, yet the very children who are part of that review and their parents, again, were the last to know, because everybody else seemed to know. The media knew before the parents were even briefed on it, and that was days after the Minister had received the report and, indeed, the HSE had the report since September of last year. That was only one part of two reviews Mr. Nayagam was doing. The second is now going to look at all those systemic failures that have been identified in many the other reports I have talked about. We also had the famous unpublished report that looked at failures in urology and oncology services for children. Again, it referenced the orphan children, HR issues and very clear management and systemic failures within CHI. We had a report on where and how money had been spent and whether it had been spent for the purposes for which it was intended. We had a report, unfortunately, on hip dysplasia and all the mistakes that were made in that area. There was also to be a report on equity of access. That was an audit the Minister had promised was to be published by the end of November. It was then promised to be published by the end of February. My understanding is that it still is not complete. That was to look at equity of access, particularly for those complex cases and all of that. I mention all those reports because it really does show the level of scandal, dysfunction and failure that was in CHI. This drives parents mad, and rightly so, and drives advocate groups mad. I meet them all at the time. As I said, I have met many campaigners. My party colleague spoke to a lady called Úna Baker, who is also an advocate and campaigner in this area. What they tell us is that they had been shouting from the rooftops about all those issues for years and they were met with a stone wall of resistance from the Government. In fact, an Teachta McDonald and I and others in opposition were coming in on a weekly basis and raising many of these issues and we were told in some instances that there was nothing to see here. That was the reality of it, yet we had to go back and face parents who were telling us there was something to see here. There is failure right across the board, and we now are seeing that. We saw it in some of the reports, but we obviously have not seen all of the reports. The problem then is that there are still children who are being failed. The Minister has committed to a public inquiry. I want to get to that because that is really important and that was the substance of the meeting I had with advocates and parents this week in advance of this debate. They met the Minister and the Tánaiste in good faith. They want to be equal partners in shaping the terms of reference. They should be equal partners. They are more equal, in my view, than CHI, the HSE or the Department because it is their children who are being failed. As an Teachta McDonald said, theirs are the voices that must be front and centre and must have primacy in relation to the terms of reference. However, they tell me they were promised a mediator, not a facilitator, who would recognise those advocates and parents as equal voices. They do not see that that is what this process is. I still do not know, and I did not hear it in the Minister's speech today. I accept she is going to say a facilitator has been appointed who will scope out what this public inquiry will do, but I have never really heard from the Minister what she expects this inquiry to do. I will tell her what I expect the inquiry to do, however, which is establish all the facts, wherever they lead us, and establish where the failures are, wherever they lead us, whether it is organisational, individual, clinical or political. It has to establish the facts and all the failures. It has to look at all those issues: at waiting times, how people were moved off urgent care lists, which is something we saw with tragic consequences; individual care needs for some children, for obvious reasons; urology services; and oncology services. It has to look at all the failures from top to bottom within CHI and it must look at each and every one of those failures for each and every one of those children. I do not get a sense that this is what this public inquiry will do. I still do not know if it will be a statutory inquiry and what role and powers it will actually have. However, I do know what parents want, which is an inquiry where there is absolutely no hiding place for anybody because what they have seen so far in all the reports I mentioned earlier is a lack of accountability and hiding places left, right and centre. We are told by the Minister that because of High Court proceedings the Nayagam review’s findings cannot be published. My understanding is the Minister was not party to those proceedings, which were between the HSE and the High Court. However, she is the Minister - she has a copy of a report that is very serious and has findings. Nobody, with the exception of the Minister and people in the HSE, knows what is in that report. The parents do not know and nor do we in opposition. I do not know when we will ever know. The Minister still has not told me when the report will be published, if ever, because the Dixon report was never published and nor have been the other report that caused consternation for families last year and many more, such as the Arthur Cox report and so on. There is a long history of report after report, review after review, all done behind closed doors, which never see the light of day and parents are the last to know. All the while, children like Mikey Henry-Benson, Lauren Kelly and many others are still waiting for treatment. Their families are heartbroken. They come to us all the time and ask us what can be done for their children. We can only raise it in here. This is the only way we can do it, by coming into the Dáil to use our voices to raise their cases. We want those children to get the care they need. I accept they are complex cases but they are children who are deteriorating before their parents’ eyes. They are asking us to appeal to the Government - to beg it - to do everything possible to ensure those children get the care they need. While I welcome the fact we are having a debate here today, we have an awful lot more to do and a lot of road to travel before we rebuild parents’ trust and confidence in CHI or in this Government’s handling of all these issues. Much more needs to be done for those complex cases and children who are waiting for urgent care and who are deteriorating by the day.

Sentiment score: -0.05