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individual hospitals actually lived up to their responsibilities and ensured proper care for those children. I want to look forward and ensure that the legacy of Harvey Morrison Sherratt and all the other children who have been failed is that those children currently waiting for care … serious questions for this Government in terms of the initiatives that we have been told are being taken to try to reduce the waiting lists and the failure to take them up, particularly with regard to treatment abroad

want to understand the true state of a nation's healthcare system, do not just look at its emergency rooms or its hospital beds. Look at its smiles. Look at the teeth of its children, the stress lines of its working class and the growing bills … checked when they should. What happens when children clear that hurdle and need structural help? They enter the punishing labyrinth of HSE orthodontic waiting lists. Right now, more than 11,000 people, mostly children, are stranded on waiting lists for braces and jaw surgeries in some regions. Families

list is 4,881 children. That is an increase of 130% on her watch. What makes it even worse is the number of children waiting for more than a year for an appointment. When the Minister of State came into office in 2020, there were 223 children waiting … That now stands at 643 children. That is an increase of 188% in the number of children waiting for mental health supports for more than a year. Having one child waiting for more than a year for mental health supports is an absolute scandal but 643 should

enjoy school, playing sport or hanging out with their friends without the worry of medication, pain and hospital appointments, or, even worse, no hospital appointment at all. My heart goes out to the family of Harvey Morrison Sherratt and all the children and families who continue … devices, when unnecessary hip surgeries are performed on children and when children who do need treatment cannot access it or are removed from waiting lists without their or their families' knowledge. These revelations came out piece by piece. We need a public inquiry that delivers for those affected

which enshrines the right of people with disabilities to live in their community. St. Stephen’s is a fine location for an elective hospital but it is not a suitable place for people to live over a period of years and in some cases for the rest … another layer of management to implement the retrograde pay and numbers strategy by redeploying existing staff will not solve the out-of-control waiting lists in primary care, psychology and CDNTs. It will lead to a plummeting of morale and drive clinicians out of the health service. There

role of his own Government in yet another scandal. There was the scoliosis scandal, the CervicalCheck scandal and the children's hospital overrun scandal - the list goes on and on. The questions that parents are asking are fairly simple: could this have been avoided? The consultant identified … proposal. It works in other jurisdictions and we had modified it for this jurisdiction. We called it Comhliosta. It was a single, integrated waiting list management system that would remove those perverse incentives and ensure the health service was working at maximum capacity so as to enable

again. We simply cannot allow the wreckage of the past and a toxic culture in CHI to take hold in a new CHI hospital. The scope of this public inquiry must not be too narrow. We do not need to see little bits of the jigsaw but, rather … since his untimely death, for better healthcare for children. Last year, I asked in this House why Harvey was removed from the waiting list without his parents’ knowledge. Today, as we speak, Stephen and Gillian still do not have an answer to this. We have seen reports from

latest population figure for the wider area covered is 690,000. It is covered by five treatment centres, which the Deputy has listed, two of which are only open overnight on weekdays, and those two are open 24 hours on weekends and public holidays. The geography is vast … surgical hubs. One is in my own constituency. Indeed, I was born in Mount Carmel hospital. It will implement the use of innovative patient pathways and have a real impact on reducing waiting times for patients. If waiting times for patients are reduced, it means they will have

need to change. There are those who profess that the private sector will sort everything. If somebody wants to operate a private hospital, that is all well and good. Good for them. It is okay if they want to do that but it needs to be separated … look at this category of people for a moment. These are the same people who cannot get on a local authority housing waiting list. Many workers and their families cannot get on a local authority waiting list. They cannot get a mortgage - and if they

there are almost 1 million people on acute health waiting lists as well as some 250,000 people on community and primary care waiting lists. We have record numbers of people on trolleys. Yet, the Government cannot seem to get a grip with any of it. We spend … credit of €400. We also proposed additional capital spending in health, housing and other areas to build the society we need with schools, hospitals and infrastructure. The reason I say every year that the Tánaiste represents a cosseted, privileged class is that every budget I see from

answers, we have to be certain that we are able to build trust. The Minister spoke about how it would look at waiting lists between 2019 and 2025. Consideration may need to be given to some of those children impacted before 2019, if it is relevant to some … health in future is to learn lessons from this. We are moving towards finally seeing the opening of the national children's hospital, NCH. We have to acknowledge the enormous commitment of front-line healthcare staff and what all of our doctors, nurses and others are doing

They are now completely disenfranchised from the communities they need to access. There are no public transport links to hospitals, including children's hospitals. Regardless of whether it is the C3, which terminates in Maynooth via Leixlip, or the C4, which terminates in Celbridge, what we have here … young people, would the Minister as part of the next budget consider putting €100 on the Leap card for anyone on a waiting list for a driving test for more than ten or 12 weeks? This would give people an incentive to use whatever public transport is available

others have rightly warned it is not sufficient to deliver the broader reforms needed to address staffing shortages, recruitment and retention difficulties, lengthy waiting lists, legal aid deserts and growing demand on an already overstretched system. Our committee's report made clear that far more comprehensive action … flat fee model. Such models by their nature disincentivise people from dealing with complex cases. A very good example is if you gave hospital consultants flat fees per patient, the more complex cases would clearly be avoided by anybody who had alternatives. As Chairperson of the Oireachtas justice

waiting list to the next in the first place is that the services are so restricted that they are attempting to manage their waiting lists by becoming rigid in their inclusion criteria. There is no getting away from the need for proper workforce planning and investment in primary … over years and in some cases over decades. As many as possible were being moved into long-stay wards in St. Stephen’s Hospital, Glanmire, an institutional setting removed from anything resembling community living, surrounded by fields, without even a footpath to the nearest service station, which

within the HSE and the numbers currently being trained to deal with unmet patient need. Patients are being left to sit on waiting lists up to two years for procedures involving general anaesthetic and six years for orthodontics, while the Government is failing to provide adequate funding … just children who are being affected by shortages in the number of dentists. One in six of all patients is left waiting more than three months for a routine appointment. If we are to address these ongoing issues around the number of dentists within the system, we must

last three years. For just €200,000, Genesis Counselling Services could increase its counselling service by 4,000 hours. That would eliminate any waiting list that we have in Dublin 15. It would transform its ability to operate. We recently met incredible young people who have been supported … psychiatrist even though they need that help now. The NTA has had to raise the barriers on the bridge next to Connolly Hospital due to several suicides over recent years. It is desperately sad and we should not have to build infrastructure to physically prevent a person from

Some 750,000 people are waiting on outpatient waiting lists. Time and again children are being failed because of the huge shortage of therapies and supports to those with additional needs in this country. It is not clear to me that the health budget of €1.5 billion announced … barely moving and we have a serious capacity issue. The Government put a lot of store this year on increasing productivity in hospitals and with regard to rostering, which we in the Labour Party very much support. There is, however, a reality that this project of productivity cannot

Boys' National School, Lucan. Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher - To discuss an application for port listing of Killybegs in line with new regulations. Deputy John Paul O'Shea - To discuss delays in waiting times for outpatient appointments with consultant orthopaedic surgeons in Cork. Deputy Barry Ward - To discuss … need in Cork schools and the cuts to SNA provision. Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss the urgent critical expansion required at the Rotunda hospital. Deputies David Cullinane, Conor D. McGuinness - To discuss the allocation of special needs assistants in County Waterford. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae - To discuss

team there do immense work, not only for a relative of mine but indeed for so many constituents. St. Columcille's Hospital in Loughlinstown, with around 450 staff in total, provides the medical assessment unit and injury unit that so many people and families have turned to over … global leader in this area, with advanced practice accounting for 2.7% of the nursing and midwifery workforce. That has meant shorter waiting lists, faster access for patients, and clear career pathways for nurses themselves. Of the 47 recommendations in the expert review body report, 36 have been closed

recommendations made in the report. As of the end of March, however, there were 137 children on CHI's active waiting list, 67 of whom were waiting over four months. That is way too many and it is something that needs to be addressed immediately … support for mental health, including counselling, if needed, for our younger people. I will give the House an example. In St. Luke's hospital in Kilkenny, a fantastic hospital, any child who is in there who has type 1 diabetes does not have any access to any sort

constituency of Longford-Westmeath, and in the constituency of Laois, because money is wasted on stuff relating to the national children's hospital. We need new health centres all over the place. We do not even have a primary care centre in Portlaoise, which is a town with … also acknowledge the good work it does. I can list some of the projects in County Laois that the OPW oversees, including Heywood Gardens and Emo Demesne. I could list many more, including oversight of monuments, etc., and the good work that is done there. Good work

nine. He was told he needed an operation to correct the curve in his spine. He was left to wait years without surgery and waited so long that he became inoperable at the age of 13. He is now confined to a wheelchair. The curve in his back … with scoliosis and spina bifida, children who have been waiting in agony for their operations and children who waited for so long that they became inoperable. We heard from parents racked with worry that their child might die waiting for the care and surgery they need

things. That is before we talk about the likes of the national children's hospital, the national maternity hospital or any of the other big projects the country is waiting for. Let us look at the urgency shown by this Government. The Dáil has sat for 35 days … national target of ten weeks. In Meath, people are waiting an average of 42 weeks to get a test. There should not be a waiting time of more than a fortnight to get a test but people are waiting 42 weeks. We were told in March that

people leave UHK, they are promised they will get a home care package. Even after the two or three weeks in the community hospital, there is no home care package. It does not arrive. The people go home, and even though they have been approved for so many … want to build their own homes. When you are above €36,000 or €37,000, you will not even get on the housing list. There are people above that, middle income earners, and those sites should be made at least affordable for people in that category, so they

category under their hardship terms. That should be a no-brainer. I have dealt with a woman who spent years on the council list in one county and when she moved to her home county as a direct result of domestic violence, her years were wiped because people … chun an Ghaeltacht a fhás agus a choinneáil bríomhar. Today, there are 510 people lying on hospital trolleys, 84 of whom are in University Hospital Limerick, with 64 in my local hospital in Galway. I am sure many of us have been in accident and emergency departments recently