Thanks to the Tánaiste and her Government, we have had another week of chaos across the State. It started with chaos in the public appointments process as the Tánaiste tore up yet another election promise and her Government's own rules to give a plum post to a party supporter. Then we saw the scandalous chaos in the housing system first hand, with families degraded and forced into emergency accommodation by the cuts to the social housing budgets and to rent supplement.

Today we hear of the latest episode of chaos in the health system. Cork University Hospital is so overstretched, it has cancelled all non-urgent appointments. Its emergency department is bursting at the seams. People who have been patiently waiting for important procedures for years have been told that they will have to wait even longer. Worse still, we learn that there are 250 children with scoliosis waiting on operations to fix their spines or waiting to see a consultant. Many have been waiting for 15 months or more for vital treatment. Can the Tánaiste imagine what it means to have scoliosis with one's spine bent to 40 degrees, one's organs being crushed and one's entire body in incredible crippling pain?

Would the Tánaiste accept a 15-month wait for her child to see a consultant or to have surgery for scoliosis? Of course she would not. Why, then, does she force these parents to wait and their children to suffer? These children live day to day in chronic pain and their parents watch on powerless as their children suffer because of the decisions of her Government.

I do not at this stage expect clear-cut answers to any of my questions but, before the Tánaiste trots out her usual evasions, I would ask her to think about these children. I ask her what she has to say to them, their parents and their families, who are suffering now because of the chaos the Government has created in the health system.

Thanks to the Labour Party and Fine Gael being in government, we now have 135,000 more people back at work in this country.

How many emigrated?

We have the fastest growing economy in Europe and we have the prospect of building on the recovery to provide more funding for education and health, and to address the difficult issues that undoubtedly face a number of different areas of our society. I am happy to say that because of the fact people are going back to work and the economy is recovering, we have been able to give people back some small return in terms of the USC they were charged as an emergency tax during the crisis, and we have been able to invest significant extra resources last year and this year in our health system. Not only that but we are reducing our debt and we are now becoming, as every day goes past, a stronger economy. I wonder whether people want to risk the recovery we have had, with Labour and Fine Gael-----

Tell that to the people.

-----on the kind of manifesto and vague promises those in Sinn Féin have put forward. I believe that is a risk many families are simply not prepared to take.

Specifically with regard to scoliosis, I discussed this at length with a number of Independent Deputies in recent months. Scoliosis is a very difficult condition that is particularly difficult as children grow and as they approach and pass puberty. It is for that reason that significant additional resources have been put into the scoliosis services in Ireland, for which the lead hospital is Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin. While the waiting times have to be brought down further, we have the money to invest in that and we have the money to invest in an extra surgical theatre in Crumlin for scoliosis, which will be opened in April. Last year, an extra 100 operations were undertaken in regard to scoliosis to bring the waiting times down.

All of that is out of the fruit of people's hard work and economic growth. The Deputy is suggesting that we would put all of our recovery and economic growth, and put this country and economy, into the hands of Sinn Féin. I thank her not, and I do not think the voters will thank her either.

I hope the Tánaiste is not addressing that to homeless people.

The Sinn Féin suggestion is what its Minister for Education said in the North, when he advised young people not to study to be teachers because he could not provide jobs in education.

There are two levels of pay down here. There is unequal pay.

What Deputy McDonald is suggesting now goes against a clearly laid out plan in regard to the scoliosis initiative in the paediatric services. In 2015, 100 scoliosis surgeries were carried out, including 67 at Crumlin. A further 33 of those on the Crumlin waiting list were treated in other hospitals. This is a 51% increase on the number of such surgeries carried out in 2014. Some 39 additional patients from the Crumlin waiting list were transferred either to the Blackrock Clinic or to Stanmore in the UK, some for treatment in the next few weeks. We have also increased capacity for the longer-term, including additional theatre capacity and additional staffing, and the necessary funding has been allocated. The funding and the staffing side provides for two consultant orthopaedic surgeons, an anaesthetist and support staff at Crumlin. As I said, Crumlin is the major hospital in Ireland for treating children with scoliosis. Temple Street does about 22 a year and those treatments are being prioritised.

I suppose we can only regard the Tánaiste's response at this stage as her single transferable rant, week to week. There is something alarming in her suggestion that affording these 250 children the attention and procedures they require will somehow put the recovery at risk. There is something other-worldly, bizarre and a bit obscene about an assertion like that.

How did the Deputy twist that one around?

I would also suggest that those children and, more to the point, their parents and families, will not thank the Tánaiste for delivering a rant against Sinn Féin and an amount of pre-election posturing, rather than dealing with the question I clearly put to her.

She would never do that herself.

Slab Murphy is thanking her. She stood by her man.

Order, please.

It is of no comfort and is of no consequence to those families to learn of the Tánaiste's view of Sinn Féin or any other political party in this Chamber.

It might be to Fianna Fáil.

Good old Slab.

It is irrelevant and is a typical diversion on the part of the Tánaiste.

If it is as the Tánaiste says, namely, that the Government has made the necessary investment, why are there 250 children with scoliosis waiting to see a consultant or to have surgery? Why is it that Cork University Hospital has had to cancel all non-emergency procedures? That is not evidence of investment and progress, it is evidence of a lack of investment and of chaos and failure. Perhaps the most acute failure is the fact that just as we have children eking out an existence with their parents in bed and breakfasts, hostels and hotels, so too, on the Tánaiste's watch, there are 250 children, many in excruciating pain, who need an answer now.

The Deputy's time is up.

They need medical attention now, not in 12 months' time, as the Tánaiste suggests. I have told her that many of them have been waiting for 15 months already. They deserve a direct response from the Tánaiste. They deserve better than a political attack; they deserve answers. It would be refreshing, if the Tánaiste is not prepared to answer us, as parliamentarians, that she would at least have the good grace and dignity to answer those children and their families.

Where is the Deputy's grace and dignity? She is the antithesis of grace and dignity.

Thank you, Deputy McDonald. I call the Tánaiste.

What is the Tánaiste doing for these families and these children now? Scoliosis is, as the Tánaiste knows, an excruciating condition. I am sure she has heard the testimony of parents who say they look on as their children cry in pain, and they wait and wait. Will they wait forever more? Will they wait another 12 months? What will the Tánaiste do for these children?

Was that not a rant?

Has the Deputy finished her tsunami of hate and invective? Is she sure she is finished or does she want to rant a bit more?

Where was the hate?

Will the Tánaiste answer the question?

Has she ranted enough? The hate and the invective ill becomes her, if I may say so.

We are talking about Crumlin children's hospital. The scoliosis unit in Crumlin children's hospital is recognised worldwide, as is the work done by consultants like Mr. Moore.

It does not have enough resources, that is the issue.

If the Deputy knew anything about the staff who work in Crumlin children's hospital-----

It is not the staff, it is the resources.

-----she would not make such cheap comments about Crumlin and the care and attention the staff there give to the children and the parents of children with this difficult condition that affects them as they grow up over a number of years.

I am not sure how familiar the Deputy is with Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin and the scoliosis unit, but she should hang her head in shame-----

It is a pity the Tánaiste would not do the same.

-----for suggesting it did less than looking after the children in it. We have some of the finest paediatric nurses, doctors and consultants in Crumlin who are dealing with children with scoliosis.

It is a pity they are not matched by the finest Ministers.

Please allow the Minister to continue.

In a specific reply to a specific part of the Deputy's query about additional resources, I have said that as a result of the initiative under way, some 100 extra scoliosis operations were carried out last year. That was a 51% increase on the figure for the previous year. I also said a further 33 patients had been transferred to the Blackrock Clinic and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore in the United Kingdom. I gave this detailed response in reply to a question put by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan some weeks ago. I do not want the Deputy to demoralise staff in hospitals through the invective she has applied to the scoliosis initiative.

The Tánaiste is demoralising them.

Quiet, please.

Work is under way on a new theatre in Crumlin hospital that is specifically being provided to assist in the treatment of scoliosis. Its construction is due to be completed in April this year. In addition, we are providing for the appointment of two consultant orthopaedic surgeons, an anaesthetist and support staff. Just because the Deputy has read up on the issue and been listening to parents who are distressed and upset-----

Has the Tánaiste?

I am a mother and, like everybody who has children, I have plenty of experience of children who have experienced various illnesses at different times in their lives. There is no parent - the Deputy is also a parent herself - whose heart does not go out to these parents. However, we are providing extra staff and an additional theatre. We are calling on resources available in the private sector, in the Blackrock Clinic and the United Kingdom, to ensure urgent operations are carried out as quickly as possible.

There are still 250 children waiting.

Those children will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

That is not the story parents are telling us.

They are being dealt with. There have been 100 additional operations. I do not think the Deputy actually knows much about scoliosis as a condition or the times at which such patients can be operated on.