Information released to Aontú in response to a parliamentary question in recent days has shown that in the last three years, Children's Health Ireland, CHI, has cancelled more than 160 operations for children in Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals due to the lack of intensive care beds.

These are cancellations for very serious operations for children who are very sick. Nine of these cancellations were for heart operations for children. Ten cancellations were for children needing serious orthopaedic surgery. There are just 23 paediatric intensive care beds in Our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin, and just nine in Temple Street. Many of these children and their families have waited years for what in some cases is lifesaving surgery, only to get the heartbreaking news that the surgeries have been cancelled.

I repeat that there have been 161 cancelled surgeries for children in just the last three years. It is an incredible figure. There was no clinical reason for the cancellation of these surgeries. The surgeons were there and they were ready. The operating theatres were ready. The equipment was ready. The very sick children were fixed for the surgery but there were simply no beds for these children to recover in. It is an absolute scandal. We have just come from Covid-19 when the talk was about the necessity for intensive care beds in this country.

CHI has been in the news for many other reasons in the last couple of weeks. There was the implementation of unapproved non-CE marked springs, which were put into children and which were made from corrosive material, resulting in significant pain, suffering and stress for those innocent children. That alone is a scandal of enormous proportions. In the last two weeks we have heard reports of hundreds of unnecessary hip operations carried out in two Dublin hospitals, with 79% of the hip operations carried out in Cappagh hospital and 60% of the operations carried out in Temple Street simply not meeting the threshold necessary for the surgery. As the Minister can imagine, those parents are sick to the stomach about what happened. When the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, was Minister for Health, he promised that no child would have to wait for more than four months for a scoliosis operation, yet today children are waiting for up to three and a half years for that operation. Fine Gael stated that they wanted to make Ireland the best country in Europe to be a child, but presumably that does not apply if they are sick, if they are waiting for surgery, or if they need a scoliosis operation. How does a child developing a curvature in his or her back of up to 125° achieve that goal? How does an unapproved, experimental spring put into a child achieve that goal? How does an unnecessary operation for a child achieve that particular goal?

We in Aontú have raised the issue of accountability so many times in this Chamber. Why can the Government not move from recognising there is a crisis to implementing accountability? Will the Government remove the board of CHI or will it allow it to remain in place after such devastation to so many children?

The knee-jerk reaction or response to anything that goes wrong - to call for people to be sacked or removed from a board - does not help anybody. It does not actually change the fact that we need to make progress, that we need people in place to be able to make sure the children's hospital can open, and that we need to make sure any recommendations coming from the reports we have discussed today can be implemented in order that there is accountability. Sacking everybody makes absolutely no impact and has no positive impact on any of the young people the Deputy mentioned and their families.

The Deputy never recognises or acknowledges that significant investment has gone into our health services in recent years. Our health budget has increased by nearly 40% in recent years. There will always be challenges we need to overcome and areas where we need to do better, but a 40% increase in our budget shows that this is an absolute priority for this Government. Some 28,000 people have joined the health workforce in recent years. More people than ever are being treated by our healthcare service. Progress is being made on waiting lists. We have more people in hospital beds than ever before and more people who are getting hospital beds than ever before.

When it comes to scoliosis and spina bifida, I acknowledge that this is the most traumatic and difficult experience that any young person could go through. This is their life and what they have to deal with, which is why it has been a focus and a priority for this Government. In recent years - this is included in the 40% I have mentioned - €30 million has been allocated to help tackle waiting lists for spinal procedures. Last year alone, some 513 spinal procedures were completed, which is a 10% increase on the year before. Of course we want to do more, but there has been a 35% increase since 2019. We are making progress. It is important for the Deputy to acknowledge that there is progress and that investment is being made. A dedicated paediatric spinal surgery management unit was established in CHI just last year, in 2024. It is working to co-ordinate services, implement strategies, drive continuous improvement and address any challenges. On top of this, we have a ring-fenced theatre in Crumlin that provides additional capacity for spinal surgeries, as well as outpatient clinics that are taking place where spinal outpatients are being seen. A lot of work is happening but there is a lot more we need to do.

With regard to what happened this week and the HIQA report, it is absolutely appalling. It is appalling that equipment or devices that are not medically approved and that are corrosive would have been put into the body of anybody, let alone a small child. Every single thing that can be done, in terms of the overhaul of structures of management systems that are in place but need to be changed and improved, will happen. The Minister for Health is working very closely with the CEO of the hospital, the HSE, the Department of Health and the Government to make sure that is the case. This is a priority for this Government. Supporting and protecting young people and children and making sure they get the very best healthcare, which they are entitled to and they deserve, will continue to be a priority for this Government.

I put it to the Minister that these are not "challenges", these are hundreds of children who have been damaged because of wrongdoing in these hospitals under the Government's remit. The word "appalling" does not equate to accountability. They are not the same thing. The Minister standing up here and saying how shocked she is does not change things at all. A mother was on "Prime Time" during the week discussing the fact that numerous reports have been written regarding similar situations, with dozens of recommendations, but have simply never been implemented. The parents do not trust the Government to get this right. The Minister spoke about this being "a priority". A new national children's hospital is being built. A representative of CHI said in an interview that there will be more intensive care beds in that hospital, but in the same interview could not say that those beds will actually be opened when the doors of the hospital are opened. The interviewee said that they do not know exactly when those new beds will be open. There is no clear timescale for those beds to be open, to change the situation where hundreds of children are having their operations cancelled. Give us a clear timescale today and we will believe the Minister.

There will certainly be no timeframe if the Deputy wants the entire board sacked and removed. We would have to replace them and then make sure that progress can somehow continue without a board. We cannot make progress in opening any hospital bed, opening any acute hospital or having any surgery in the new hospital if we do not have a board. Let us be realistic here. What do we have to do?

The hospital is delayed.

We have to act on the facts that we know.

It is four years.

A report that was commissioned by HIQA clearly states that children were operated on with medical devices that should not have been used. We are acting. The persons responsible - we all have responsibility here in this House - including those who carried out the operations and those who decided to have operations on young children who did not need them, have to be held accountable too, and they will. Any changes that need to be made in the hospitals, in the management, in the structure and in the procedures that led to what has happened here will be made if they have to change and when they need to change. The Government will fully support the Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, and the hospitals to make sure that happens . Simply removing a board and trying to delete an important part of this is going to delay things.

It is business as usual.

It is not going to help a single person the Deputy has mentioned.

It is business as usual.