This week most people were deeply disturbed and moved to learn about the plight of Adam Terry, a ten-year-old little boy who is living in agony because he has been waiting for more than four years for scoliosis surgery. Adam is not the only child who is suffering. This week I was contacted by the mother of a six-year-old girl, Rosie. She is desperately trying to get treatment for her daughter. Rosie was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus and has been diagnosed with epilepsy and scoliosis. She is a full-time wheelchair user.

In September 2019, Rosie and her mother met with consultant paediatric orthopaedic surgeon, Connor Green, at Temple Street and he said he hoped to operate on Rosie by that Christmas - that is Christmas 2019 - as a matter of urgency. That surgery did not take place and, more than two years later, there have been no updates from the hospital as to when it is likely to take place. That mother has contacted the hospital on numerous occasions, requested an independent review into Rosie's level of care and, earlier this year, finally went to the Ombudsman for Children. While this has been going on, Rosie's condition has significantly deteriorated. Both of her hips are now dislocated and she can no longer use her postural support equipment which is vital to try to limit the damage being done to her little body by scoliosis. Again I would point out that Rosie is six years old.

Rosie, Adam and the nearly 200 other children like them on waiting lists are enduring torture which is being facilitated by our healthcare system. There is no other way to describe such cruel infliction of needless pain. What does it say about our society and priorities that we allow this to happen? Children's bodies are becoming permanently deformed and they are enduring avoidable excruciating pain because of a lack of timely medical intervention.

It has been more than four years since the former health Minister, Deputy Harris, made a vow that children like Rosie and Adam would not have to wait more than four months for treatment. We all know Covid has had an impact but vital surgeries like these must be prioritised. In February, Mr. Green told The Irish Times:

"My access to theatre is half a day once a week, so I can do one child once a week. On average ... I can operate on [only] 40 children a year." Meanwhile, three to four patients per week are added to his ... list.

Mr. Green said if he operated every day from February to the end of the year he still would not clear his list. That is how bad things are. He said it was "disgusting and unacceptable". Will the Tánaiste give an indication of when Rosie will have her operation? Will he tell us how many theatres and what days is there space available for children in this appalling situation?

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am sorry to hear about what Rosie is experiencing and what her family must be going through. I thank the Deputy for writing to me about it as well. I have the details I need and will follow it up with Children's Health Ireland during the week and get back to the Deputy about it as soon as I get a reply. My understanding from the Deputy's letter is the surgery was scheduled for 4 October but, on the Wednesday before the surgery, her mother got a phone call to say it was cancelled and they have not got an indication yet as to when it will be rescheduled. That is not a satisfactory situation. It is difficult to prepare a child for surgery, including psychologically. To find out it is cancelled is one thing; not to have another date is another thing again. That is extraordinarily difficult and I will follow it up with Children's Health Ireland to see what can be done.

On the wider issue of scoliosis and waiting lists, the Government severely regrets that children experience long waiting times for scoliosis treatment and we remain conscious of the burden this places on them and their families. Additional funding is committed as part of the budget to reduce waiting lists and improve waiting times. That is €250 million and there is a health budget of €22 billion this years, 50% higher than it was when the Deputy and I were in the Department of Health. It is a major increase in resources.

Officials in the Department of Health remain in regular contact with Children's Health Ireland, CHI, regarding scoliosis services, and CHI has advised that all patients with a diagnosis of scoliosis require a pre-operative work-up prior to spinal surgery. This includes multiple diagnostic investigations and review by a multidisciplinary team. The plan of care implemented for each patient is tailored to best meet the patient's clinical requirements. The cyberattack in 2021 caused significant disruption to the orthopaedic service and all services across the Children's Health Ireland group. As a result, many elective cases were postponed and, without access to a patient's full history and previous diagnostic investigations, it was not considered safe to proceed without all electronic support systems in place. For affected patients with complex needs, in particular, that restricted the patient cohort that could safely proceed with surgery.

Most systems are back up and running across the sites but backloading of information is continuing and this continues to have an impact on waiting lists and the number of surgeries completed. A new orthopaedic consultant with a special interest in neuromuscular conditions started in Temple Street last month, and that should enable the use of additional theatre capacity. Additional capacity is also being provided at the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh. There are additional outpatient clinics and theatre sessions in Cappagh for non-complex, age-appropriate orthopaedic patients, and this should improve access to theatre on Children's Health Ireland base sites for more complex patients awaiting surgery.

Four years ago the Tánaiste's Government gave a commitment that no child would have to wait more than four months for scoliosis surgery. Four years later, what is that target now? I take it the Tánaiste is not in a position to recommit to his earlier target, which was never met. What now is the target for children with scoliosis, who are in agony? How many theatres are available and for how many hours per week to address these shocking waiting lists? In the case of Rosie, we were told her operation was cancelled because there were not beds for children who had operations.

What exactly is the logjam here? Is it a problem of theatre time? Is it theatre scheduling or theatre staff? Will the Tánaiste please shed some light on this matter? Why is it we have such an atrocious situation and we are failing these children so badly?

The four-month target was set by the director general of the HSE at the time, but it does remain the target: four months to outpatients and then four months to surgery. I do not know exactly what the situation is with regard to theatre time or theatre staff, but I will find out and I will get a reply for the Deputy as soon as I can.

Regarding the waiting lists, Children's Health Ireland advises us that as of the end of August, 118 patients were awaiting spinal fusion, a decrease of eight patients compared with the previous year, and 78 were awaiting other procedures, a decrease of nine on the previous year. It has advised that, due to the cyberattack these data are provisional and subject to validation.