I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion on scoliosis services and the wider need for accountability within our healthcare system. First and foremost, I must acknowledge the frustration, anger and stress experienced by children and families waiting far too long for spinal surgery. Every child deserves timely care when clinicians determine it is needed. While additional investment, increased theatre capacity and the outsourcing of procedures have helped to reduce waiting times, we must be honest that more needs to be done. It is clear, however, from every action the Minister has taken since she took up her portfolio that she is committed to doing more. Families navigating these services deserve not only treatment but clear communication, transparency and respect. Those are the basic standards that people should be able to expect from any healthcare system. The proposed statutory inquiry into spina bifida and complex scoliosis services will, therefore, be an essential step to understanding what went wrong and ensuring it never happens again. It must be thorough, independent and centred on the experiences of patients and families. I will take this opportunity to acknowledge the significant development this week regarding the victims and survivors of Michael Shine. Being from Louth, this is personal. Michael Shine was a disgusting and despicable paedophile. He preyed on hundreds of boys and young men over decades, using his place of authority and perceived respectability to hide and continue the abhorrent abuse. It was known around Louth. It was known that he was an abuser. As a child, I knew he was bad but I was never old or articulate enough to understand what that "bad" meant. It was an open secret and open shame that authorities kept it a secret and kept it slammed down. The courage of the victims, many of whom have spent years seeking truth and accountability, cannot be overestimated. I have had the privilege of meeting some of those brave men. Their stories will never leave me. They spoke with desperate honesty and vulnerability about the trauma they carried for decades. They spoke about the years of silence and about the doors that should have been open to them but were instead slammed shut. Instead of being listened to and supported, far too many of them were treated deplorably. A moment from those meetings stayed with me and I go back to it when I think about these horrors. I saw a photograph of one of the victims when he was a young boy. He was a beautiful wee boy. When I looked at that photo, I saw my own boys. My gut instinct was to reach out and hug him, to scream for him that no one was able to protect that wee child and hundreds of other wee children who had the desperate experience of having Michael Shine as their doctor. When I looked at the eyes of that wee boy, I imagined the horror he must have been living through at that moment. When I looked at the man that the child grew into, I saw the hurt that was still there and the trauma that he carried with him in those wee eyes. That was what brought him to my office that day. I also saw incredible honesty, decency and extraordinary strength. I thank Dignity4Patients for its incredible work, and congratulate it and the victims who have come forward and have given up so much to get this point. I thank the Minister for her openness to getting this done. I thank the Taoiseach for meeting the victims a few months back. That meeting had a deep and lasting effect on all who were in that office that day. The confirmation of the independent facilitator to begin the scoping exercise for the statutory inquiry is welcome. I spoke to representatives of Dignity4Patients today. They are enthusiastic, anxious and positive. The survivors have said that for the first time in many years they feel genuinely positive that progress is being made. It is absolutely essential that any inquiry arising from this process is victim-centred, trauma-informed and grounded in a human rights-based approach. Survivors must not simply be participants in the process. Their voices must shape it. I know the Minister is thoroughly committed to that. I wish to raise the issue of the timeline for the scoping exercise, which is currently set at 16 weeks. We absolutely agree that progress needs to be made swiftly. We must ensure most of all that it is not rushed. It is incredibly ambitious and a great timeline. However, if additional time or resources are required to properly engage with survivors and to develop robust terms of reference, I ask for them to be granted. After decades of waiting, the victims deserve a process that is thorough, respectful and capable of delivering truth. If I look at the photo of that wee boy again, I want to think we did justice for him in 2026.

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