Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2024-07-10
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Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central

Children with scoliosis and spina bifida waiting for spinal surgery have been repeatedly failed by the State. Confirmation that the majority of the €19 million allocated by the Government to tackle surgery waiting lists was not used for this purpose is just another broken promise to these children and their parents. It is scandalous that the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, did not act immediately when advocacy groups raised their fears that this money was being directed into other services.
It is time to end the broken promises to these children and their families. On 16 April last the Taoiseach gave two commitments. First, that the scheme through which children can travel abroad to get operations would be reinstated. Has that scheme been reinstated? When will it be reinstated? Second, he committed to engaging with the HSE about funding second opinions for children, independent of CHI. Parents, as the Taoiseach knows, have been demanding this for quite some time. Can the Taoiseach answer on those two promises for the parents and children today?

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2024-07-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:53:11+00:00
Sitting date: 2024-07-10