Tá scannal eile ó thaobh cúraim shláinte do pháistí inár dtír. Chímid ó thuarascáil neamhspleách atá foilsithe in The Ditch go raibh obráidí déanta ar na céadta páistí sa tír seo agus é ráite anois nach raibh na hobráidí sin ag teastáil uathu. Tá sé seo scannalach agus cuireann sé isteach go mór ar thuismitheoirí na bpáistí seo.

There are serious findings that unnecessary hip surgeries were carried out on hundreds of children in the CHI hospitals at Cappagh and Temple Street. These allegations were originally made by a whistleblower and were reported in the media at the time. It was further alleged that these surgeries were conducted purely for financial gain. If true, that is absolutely shocking and a great scandal. We are talking about children between the ages of one and seven. It would be disgraceful for any medical professional to decide to put a child through the pain and trauma of surgery if it was not necessary.

Following whistleblower claims and a protected disclosure, an audit into paediatric hip surgeries at the three CHI hospitals was ordered in April of last year. The report has now been published in full on The Ditch website and can be read by everyone. It claims that hundreds of children on whom surgery was carried out did not meet the threshold for that surgery. They were subject to unnecessary surgery. According to that audit, 561 children went through these hip surgeries since 2021. The audit has found that 79% of those operated on at Cappagh and 60% of those at Temple Street did not meet the threshold for surgery. They were unnecessary. The report recommends that all of these children be recalled and independently assessed.

Will the Minister imagine for a second that he was the parent of one of these children who were operated on? Can he imagine the absolute horror of thinking that your child was put through the trauma of surgery when they did not need it? The daughter of one of the parents who made contact with us was only four years of age when she went through this operation. The parent received a letter from the hospital at Cappagh to inform her of the clinical audit into these surgeries just a couple of weeks ago. She is devastated. She says she is sick to her stomach that her daughter might have been operated on unnecessarily. She continues:

This is a horrifying situation to be in as a parent. My daughter was born premature and endured lots of challenges in her first few weeks of life. This was followed by treatment for hip dysplasia and now possibly resulting in a surgery that may not have needed to happen.

This comes less than two years after it came to light that unlicensed springs were implanted into several children at Temple Street children's hospital. That scandal is still ongoing. External reviews and HIQA reviews have been ongoing for 18 months now and we still have no answers. There is no sign of the interim report that was promised at the time.

This all raises some questions. When is this going to stop? What is going on at Children's Health Ireland? Why is the Government incapable of getting to grips with it when we hear of scandal after scandal affecting the children of this State? The allegations and the news of this audit were first put in train and entered into the public domain in July of last year. Surely, given the already established concern regarding practices at CHI, these allegations should have set off alarm bells in Government Buildings, in the Taoiseach's office and in the Department of Health. These allegations should have compelled the Government to step in directly to investigate and demand answers. It raises big questions for the Government. The families who have been in touch with us want those answers. What actions did the Government take when these shocking allegations first came to light in July? Has the Government established if the allegations are true? Was some of this motivated by profit? There are hundreds of parents out there who are living a nightmare of worry. Have all of those parents been contacted? The crucial question they are asking is when they will know if their children were operated on unnecessarily.

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this very important matter. I am very conscious that before this report was made available, many families had very deep worries about surgeries their beloved children had undergone. They were raising questions about the need for and impact of these surgeries. They will at least have questioned their trust in our health service and health professionals. As the Deputy raises this very important issue, I am also conscious that our nurses, doctors and consultants work very hard to provide the best possible care to those with whose care they are entrusted. This is why it is so vital that when issues are raised regarding the need for surgeries or any other medical interventions, their impacts and why they occurred, those issues are taken very seriously and acted upon.

As Deputy Doherty has already acknowledged, a clinical audit is now taking place with regard to this issue. I emphasise that this audit is taking place in recognition of the seriousness of this matter and what it means for families' trust and confidence in health services that are designed to look after them and to support their health. That audit is being conducted at the moment. As to where that process now stands, the report is now being looked at. Clinicians are providing final input into it. That final input will be available to the author of the report very shortly, if it has not already been shared. I am certain that when the process is complete, this work will be shared with the Department of Health, the hospitals and those who lead them. At that point, a number of further priorities will then become urgent. The first will be to communicate clearly with the families of children who may have been affected and to share with them, in a transparent and open way, the conclusions of this report, acknowledging the distress and worry that many face. The second will be to look at what further actions, if any, are needed to respond to the consequences of any operations that took place. The third relates to a core theme of the audit that will have taken place. We will need to understand if and why this happened in the first place and what the consequences of it are. The hospitals, the Minister and the Government will take this as seriously as the House would expect. It is important to emphasise that this work is under way. It is all about ensuring that any surgical practice that took place during that period was carried out in a way that was consistent with international standards and the care that any family would expect when entrusting our health professionals with a child's care.

When my colleague, Deputy Cullinane, raised these questions with the Minister for Health a number of weeks ago, she said she had not seen or read the report.

It is only through The Ditch releasing the report that we can now all see it. That tells a story of the lack of urgency being placed on this issue by the Government that alarm bells are not ringing about something that was raised as far back as April last year and in the media as far back as July last year. We now know from the report published by The Ditch - the independent audit - that 79% of the operations in Cappagh did not meet the threshold and 60% in Temple Street. Potentially hundreds of children were operated on unnecessarily. A second family came to us and told us a consultant told them their young girl needed an operation on both hips. They thought something was wrong and got a private second opinion. They were told not only did she not need the surgery, but the child did not even have the condition. Let that sink in.

You are out of time, Deputy Doherty.

That is what is happening to the children of Ireland. There is not enough urgency in government which is allowing this to happen. It happens over and over. When will parents know whether their child was one of the children operated on wrongly?

The Deputy does not need to remind us of the impact this can have on families and those who have been affected by the issues now being raised. We know how important it is to maintain trust in our health services particularly for our very youngest who could be dealing with complex health needs. There is a need to ensure they trust those whose care and expertise they depend on. It is equally important in dealing with all of this is that we assemble the facts in a clear and authoritative way and that we are in a position to communicate to those who have been affected by it when there is greater clarity on exactly what happened. That process is coming to an end. The report to which the Deputy referred, which has been published elsewhere, has been assessed by the author involved in doing it. He sought further clinical input. When that report is then shared with the Department and the work is concluded, of course, contact will take place in as comprehensive and honest a manner as possible with all who fear they could have been affected by this. I underline again the seriousness with which the Government, hospitals and the Minister take this matter.