The parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida who have been waiting years for operations would have been listening intently to the Taoiseach's budget yesterday. They would have been listening in the hope that he might finally hear their calls for action and deliver the investment and change that their children so desperately need so that they might get their surgeries to end the nightmare of being stuck on a waiting list or struck off one. Although the budget book has 168 pages, there is no mention of these children with scoliosis and spina bifida, nor a single line outlining a specific solution.

Despite the hype around this budget, children with scoliosis will continue to wait in pain, to deteriorate and to run out of time. I am speaking about children like 13-year-old Darragh Higgins from Galway. Darragh was born with spina bifida and has been waiting for surgery for five years. He has been lost in a system that has failed him. His condition is ever-worsening. His spinal curve is now 120°. His mother Keara posted a video on social media last week telling Darragh's story. Darragh's scoliosis is now crushing his lungs, his bowels and his heart. Keara, his mother, tweeted "My son never had heart issues until his scoliosis was left to crush his body!" She is worried and terrified. Her big fear is that Darragh will become inoperable, just as other children have become inoperable as they waited and waited. Keara has been waiting for surgical intervention, a surgical plan and communication on her son's scoliosis treatment for far too long. He has been assessed for surgery in the United States but there is still no clarity as to if or when Darragh will have the operation and if it will go ahead. There is no clarity on travel plans, costs or length of stay. They have been given nothing in writing and are now wracked with uncertainty.

There are concerns that if Darragh and other children with spinal curvatures and complex medical needs travel, they might be asked to do so in economy seats on flights. I do not know if the Taoiseach has seen Darragh's video. He has. He could not possibly expect a young lad in that situation to be crammed into an economy seat for a transatlantic flight. Some children like Darragh have to be repositioned so they do not get pressure sores that would prevent them from getting the surgery they need when they land in America. This needs to be sorted out pronto.

As Members will know, last week, ahead of the budget, parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida came to a briefing in the Oireachtas audiovisual room. A 14-year-old boy, a wonderful young man called Tommy Long, addressed the meeting. During his time on the waiting list, this child has been through it all. He said that it was extremely disappointing to have seen no improvement for him or for the hundreds of other children with scoliosis over the last ten years.

Mar thoradh ar an mbuiséad seo, leanfaidh leanaí le scoliosis agus spina bifida ag fulaingt agus iad ag fanacht ar obráidí. Here is my question for the Taoiseach. He made no mention of these children in his budget. Where is the funding to finally deliver on the promise that no child would wait? That promise was made a long time ago and has been broken many times. Where is the money to make sure that Darragh gets to the United States and gets the treatment he needs? Where are the funding and resources to look after all of the other children who are currently suffering in agony?

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this issue. It is very important and I am pleased that we are raising it in this House. Nobody in the House wants to see any child wait in pain. Any suggestion from the Deputy that she does not but that I am somehow or other satisfied with children being left in pain is obviously not a fair portrayal of me or of any public representative in this House. This is not an issue that divides political opinion. I assure her that, if she was in my role, she would be doing what I am doing, which is to meet the clinical lead and the head of the HSE to work through the issues with them. If she wishes, I will arrange for the Deputy to meet with the clinician in charge of this programme for scoliosis because, while I am very happy to address the issue on the floor of the House, I often find it difficult to discuss children's individual clinical care plans here. I believe the Deputy would have difficulty with me doing so because there is a role for politicians and there is a role for clinicians. That is an important thing to say.

I will be really clear at the outset. Let us not be disingenuous. The Deputy has been at Leaders' Questions a hell of a lot longer than I have been and she will know that the HSE budget is detailed in a service plan. She knows that is where the line-by-line detail is found. If she wishes, she can choose to use her time to suggest that Government does not care about an issue. That is fine. Perhaps it is even her job. It is not accurate, however. The HSE will now work through the level of funding it has received from the Government with the Minister for Health and will produce the detailed HSE service plan. That is how it has worked every year the Deputy has been in this House. It is how it will work this year as well. Let me be very clear; the agreement that the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Donnelly, reached for health this year is very significant. It brings the total health budget to €25.6 billion. It means that health spending has doubled over the last decade and that staffing will have increased by 30%. It also means that there will be a real opportunity to make progress on all waiting lists, as we have been doing in recent years.

It also means that there will be further ability to invest more in paediatric spinal waiting lists. The Minister has told families, doctors, the HSE and this House that any resources required by the dedicated spinal unit he has established will be provided, and I fully support him on that. That has been the case up to now. I have met with the Minister, the CEO of the HSE and the clinical lead of the dedicated spinal unit. This is now being led by a clinical lead, Mr. David Moore. I have also met with their teams and I know that every possible avenue and resource is being put to use.

The Minister is now chairing a monthly meeting with the HSE and Children's Health Ireland on the waiting times and ensuring everything can be done. A paediatric spinal task force has been established with an independent chair, Mark Connaughton SC. We are committing significant additional investment to help to tackle waiting lists and ease the burden. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of paediatric spinal procedures carried out in 2022 and 2023. So far this year, more than 300 spinal procedures have taken place. It is important to acknowledge that. For every child the Deputy names, and she is absolutely right to highlight them, there are children getting these operations at a scale and a pace that was not the case in years gone by. As she knows, additional funding of €1.34 million was allocated when the new clinical lead requested it, and anything the new clinical lead requests will be provided for in the HSE's budget for the time ahead.

The Deputy raises a very important, specific issue and I welcome her raising it. I agree with her in relation to the difference between economy and business class and ensuring that Darragh or anybody travelling has the space to travel safely and appropriately. An arrangement with Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital in New York has been finalised. Consultants from New York have travelled to this country to see patients at a clinic in Dublin. Following a clinic held in Dublin with surgeons from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, a group of patients has also been offered treatment abroad and this is now in progress. An arrangement is also being finalised with the Portland Hospital in the UK. I am assured families will be fully supported in accessing these pathways if it is the right option for their children. A support package will be put in place to support them in travelling, including flights, accommodation, transport and travel insurance for all those in the travelling party. Quite rightly, a subsistence rate for expenses will be provided as well. I am assured that two of the flights for any family travelling will be business class. I am meeting scoliosis advocacy groups next week and I am very happy and eager to discuss all these matters.

The clinicians give the clinical advice. I am not asking the Taoiseach for clinical advice. Why would I?

The Deputy is suggesting-----

I am suggesting nothing of the sort.

Yes, but-----

I kindly ask the Taoiseach, when I raise the issue of a 13-year-old boy with a 120o curvature of his spine who has waited five years for his surgery, not to insult him or his mother, Keara - do not mind me - with smart alec, slick responses.

Excuse me-----

This child has waited five years. This child is suffering. This child can be treated in the United States. The clinicians have told Keara, his mother, that four weeks of halo-gravity traction treatment, which she cannot access here, and then another four weeks will be needed, at least, for the surgery, which will be complex but those surgeons can do it. She needs clarity. She has been given the runaround by a bureaucracy in love with itself, by paper pushers and by layers and layers of unnecessary complexity when the case is very simple.

They are resolved.

The child is 13. Boys who are 13 years old do not want to be mentioned on the floor of the Dáil. I know because I reared one myself. The last thing he wants is his name mentioned here. Yet his mother is so desperate now that she felt moved to put up a video of him and to ask that this matter be raised directly with the Taoiseach. He can get the treatment he needs in the United States.

I thank the Deputy.

She needs to know when they are travelling. The people in the United States need confirmation that the resources are available and the bill will be paid.

I thank the Deputy.

I am challenging the Taoiseach because if I were the Taoiseach, I would sort this out.

Hear, hear.

Sort it out today for that family.

The Ceann Comhairle will understand why I am finding it hard to take a moralistic lecture on child protection from the leader of the Opposition today of all days.

For goodness' sake.

She might come back to us on that. I cannot ask her a question in this House but there is a function available to her and she should use it because she should apply the same standards to herself as she applies to everybody else.

Answer the question.

I will answer the question. The Deputy is trying to do this thing. She stands up and talks about being slick and soundbites. She has obviously decided that I am now living rent-free in her head. That is fine.

The reality of the situation here, Deputy McDonald, is that I will work with this family, but I will not have her wrongly represent who I am, my values or the work I do. I will work every day to help every child who needs access.

The Taoiseach made promises to this family.

We delivered a budget yesterday that will make substantial progress. I have already outlined to the Deputy that I will be meeting directly with the family advocacy groups next week. I do not need the Deputy as an intermediary.

Why are you here?

It has been-----

I will be meeting them directly and I will be working with them, the Minister of Health and the clinician who carries out the surgeries, and is now the clinical lead, to do the best thing possible. We will put every support in place. I assure the Deputy of that.

That was promised before.

Another promise.