I raise the matter of a young girl from Greystones in County Wicklow. Her name is Miley McKee. She is 12 years old. She has a smile that would light up this entire Chamber. She is profoundly disabled and has had scoliosis for eight years now. She has been on the waiting list for an operation for two years. Her spine has a curvature of more than 100°, which according to some experts is very rarely seen in the developed world, except for people in Ireland who have scoliosis, unfortunately. Everyone is ready to go to do Miley's operation. A year of work has been done on her. She has had anaesthetics done. She has had spinal X-rays and a full blood work-up. She has done sleep studies and has had meetings with all her consultants. They are all ready to go except they do not have access to a tracheostomy nurse. That is the only thing between Miley and getting this operation done. Her parents have written to the Taoiseach. They have explained that she is in constant pain. They described it as child abuse and I absolutely agree with them. Will the Taoiseach please look into this?

I thank the Deputy for raising this case. It is a case I am familiar with and it is a case on which I have engaged with both the Department and the HSE. As the Deputy will be aware, we allocated €19 million this year specifically to deal with paediatric orthopaedics, including very complex cases, scoliosis and spina bifida. I met with Children's Health Ireland, CHI, and the National Orthopaedic Hospital Cappagh just yesterday. They have reported nearly a 50% reduction in the number of children waiting more than a year to date, which is very encouraging. There is about a 25% reduction in the number of children waiting in excess of four months. Our absolute goal and determination, and we are on track to meet it, is to bring the number of children waiting more than four months down to zero. I am meeting the Scoliosis Advocacy Network tomorrow. Everything that can be done for the young girl in our town will be done.

Miley needs that surgery and she needs it urgently.