We welcome the announcement of the inquiry into Michael Shine. My party colleague Deputy Nash will speak more about that and about the update on the sodium valproate scandal that has taken place in this country. I will confine my remarks to the scandal that has taken place with regard to children, those suffering from scoliosis or spina bifida and those with orthopaedic and urology conditions. I have been my party's health spokesperson for only 12 months and we have been in this Chamber a number of times making statements on these issues in recent months. I pay tribute to the advocacy groups and parents who have to do so much to look after their children and also fight for justice for the children who have not been so fortunate to make it, who died, or those children whose lives have been impacted forever. Their courage and fortitude in continuing that campaign is enormous. We have made very little progress, notwithstanding everything that has been said, over the past 12 months. The waiting list has reduced by just eight children in that time. During the month of January alone, there were fewer surgeries compared with January 12 months ago. The number of children with confirmed admission dates has fallen. The children categorised as active has gone up but they do not have a date. The number of long waiters has gone from 26 to 45 over the course of the year. I do not doubt that efforts are being made, particularly by the HSE, and we have seen that money has gone into this, but there are very serious questions about the progress being made. The families I talk to feel a lot is being talked about but very little is happening on the ground. That has to change. The Minister spoke earlier about the equity of access review, which was instigated last year. That was supposed to happen at the end of November; we now hear it will be published in April. There has been a delay on this and that is crucial for the children who are waiting and who need procedures in the near future. We need to see the reports on that. There has been a whole raft of reports about the scandals in CHI over many years now but it is now nearly 11 months on from the HIQA report. The HSE told us last month that 12 of the 19 recommendations have been implemented. CHI has implemented many more of the recommendations. What is holding up the full implementation of the HIQA recommendations from 11 months ago? They cover process, culture, management and oversight and in order to give confidence to those families we need to ensure that all those recommendations, at the very minimum, are enacted. The Nayagam report, when fully published, will give an insight into what happened and why. However, families have been waiting over two years for that report and it is not acceptable that they still have not had any contact with Mr. Nayagam himself and have had no sight of the report. I know there is ambiguity about when Mr. Nayagam will talk to the families but the families thought they would have been contacted by now. It is not acceptable that the families would not have had insight into their cases. They have been called back, but they have no insight into what Mr. Nayagam is saying about those specific cases. On the public inquiry, there was a very powerful moment last November. It seemed like an enormous breakthrough that the Government agreed to a public inquiry and we in the Labour Party very much supported that. However, we have gone from an agreement that first suggested that a mediator would be put in place to now having a facilitator. I am sure Mr. Farrell will do an excellent job for what the Minister intends but there is a difference between a mediator and a facilitator. I believe there has been a shift from that initial commitment to parity of esteem and of input between the Minister and the advocacy groups into the terms of reference of this review. Many of the families feel that the power and input they were initially promised will not now materialise. There is also concern about the term “complex scoliosis”. From freedom of information requests to the Department, we know that conditions such as adolescent idiopathic scoliosis are deemed to be non-complex. Are we creating two classes of children with scoliosis here? A child who just has scoliosis might be as dramatically impacted as a child who has multiple conditions. We need to ensure that all children suffering from scoliosis will be included in the public inquiry. There is already a crisis of confidence in this public inquiry before it has ever got off the ground. The Minister needs to do significant work to reassure the families and the advocacy groups that they will get the public inquiry they need and deserve. Crucially, for the children who are waiting for treatment, we need to see much more dramatic interventions by the Minister and the HSE to ensure those waiting lists go down much further and that, particularly for those long waiters, there is very significant action to address what is an absolutely unacceptable position for them. It is appalling that we are eight years on from those Government commitments being made and we have that extent of long waiters still in the health system.

Sentiment score: 0.09