Tá tuismitheoirí trína chéile mar gheall ar an gcur chuige atá beartaithe don fhiosrú ar Shláinte Leanaí Éireann. Ní mór don Rialtas gníomhú chun dul i ngleic lena gcuid imní agus chun a chinntiú go bhfaigheann an fiosrúchán na freagraí atá de dhíth.
For years, we have heard the harrowing stories of children with scoliosis and spina bifida; children who were failed catastrophically by Children's Health Ireland, CHI, and by the health system prior to the establishment of that organisation, left waiting for operations that could change their lives, living with the fear of becoming inoperable; children who had their hips operated on unnecessarily. They were profoundly failed by the State and successive Governments.
Parents have fought a long and hard battle for answers. They fought for accountability, and yet they were stonewalled at every turn. It took the death of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt for the Government to move on an inquiry. Following meetings with Harvey's parents, Gillian and Stephen, the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, and the health Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, promised an inquiry that would be child centred to provide parents with answers and to deliver accountability.
On Monday, Remy Farrell published his report on CHI and the recommendations for that proposed inquiry and parents feel that they still have not been heard. They are back to square one. They are angry because the period to be covered by the inquiry will have a starting point of 1 January 2019, but the failures of children did not begin on that date. Indeed, they long predated the establishment of CHI.
In fact, Simon Harris made his now infamous promise back in 2017 because at that stage we already had a crisis. He said at that time that no child would wait longer than four months for spinal surgery. Of course, that promise came to nothing and meant nothing as children continued to suffer, so it is not acceptable that an examination of those early years would be excluded from the inquiry because it means that people who are now adults and suffered greatly as children while waiting for treatment before 2019 will be deliberately cut out of that inquiry. That is just wrong.
Parents are also upset that there will not be a detailed investigation into individual circumstances and the treatment of affected children. Instead, the focus will be exclusively on systemic problems. So, the question is: how will this inquiry provide parents with the truth about how their child was failed? For this inquiry to have the confidence of parents, it has to be a process that identifies all failures, including individual failures.
There is also real concern that the majority of the proposed commission of investigation will be held behind closed doors. Of course, some parents will want to give their testimony in private and that has to be respected and accommodated, but remember, many parents are done with closed doors. They were forced to share their children's suffering very publicly, so they want to give their testimony in public, and they want the accountability to be public too.
Does the Taoiseach understand why parents feel so badly let down? Does he recognise and accept that the starting point of 1 January 2019 is totally wrong? Can he tell parents today what he will now do to ensure that this inquiry provides them with the answers they need?
