I think it is wrong the Deputy should constantly undermine and denigrate the Government in respect of this. I genuinely do.

Yesterday, the Scoliosis Advocacy Network and the families of children affected by the scoliosis crisis gave a presentation in the audiovisual room. Mothers told of the deaths of their children and of the continuous extreme pain many children felt and others told of lungs and stomachs being crushed and their children being disabled for the lack of treatment. Images were shown of rods that were inserted breaking through the skin of the children. We heard about children suffering from infertility and higher rates of cancer because of the lack of treatment. The parents of Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a nine-year-old boy who died during the summer having waited years for an operation, also spoke in the audiovisual room. The Taoiseach must recognise it is outrageous that parents in such a circumstance have to pour out their grief over and over in the public domain to shock the political system into dealing with this issue.

The group also spoke about the toxic management culture in CHI and the bullying of staff and parents. One parent alleged that CHI falsely referred their child to Tusla because that parent was active in seeking treatment for their child. We were told of the spending of taxpayers' money without oversight, the insertion of unauthorised springs into children, hundreds of children going through operations that were not necessary and other hundreds of children on waiting lists. We were told not all of this in the past tense; much is still in the present tense.

CHI has descended into dysfunction over the past decade because of a lack of transparency. Twelve reports have been written about CHI many of which are still not published. Many of them castigate the continuous disaster within that organisation.

In 2017, Simon Harris promised that no child would wait longer than four months for an operation. This was not an exceptional promise. It was a promise to implement an international norm. Simon Harris failed in that promise and so too has every single Minister for Health. There is no accountability without a cost for wrongdoing. Real accountability can be the catalyst for change. This is an issue the Government keeps missing. This Government is allergic to accountability.

Look at the ballooning of the national children's hospital. Today, we learned in the newspapers that the completion date for this €2.24 billion hospital will be missed for the 16th time, an incredible situation.

Next week, we propose to table a motion of accountability. The Government brought forward a motion of confidence to this week. It is a cynical political trick to ensure voters will not be thinking about the Government's abysmal record with these children when they go to the polls in the presidential election. The timescaling of any debate by a government on that basis is absolutely wrong. I ask the Taoiseach to tell the families who have been campaigning that there will be a statutory public inquiry with the power to compel people and parents.

Thank you, Deputy, your time is up.

Will the Taoiseach tell these children and parents they will no longer have to wait for this life-and-death treatment?

There is a salient ruling of the House. I ask Deputies on both sides to respect it. There will be no mention of the Presidential election. We have agreed under salient rulings that the President's office is above debate. That includes nominees or mentioning the election. Both sides of the House, please respect the salient ruling. I call the Taoiseach.

I, along with many in the House, again offer my deepest condolences to Harvey Morrison Sherratt's family, his parents Gillian and Stephen, and to all those who have lost children in difficult and very challenging circumstances. I acknowledge and accept we need to do better in respect of the children of this country, particularly in terms of access to timely healthcare. Optimally, every child should receive treatment and a surgical intervention when it is recommended by the clinicians at the right time. It concerns me that children are waiting much longer than they should be for surgery, particularly spinal surgery for scoliosis. The objective from a Government perspective is that we consistently improve capacity in terms of human capacity - surgeons, anaesthetists and the entire teams that create the capacity in a children's hospital to do the surgery required - and that there is also better governance within hospitals, particularly within CHI. There have been quite a number of reports that have painted a very difficult, to say the least, picture in respect of some aspects of what has happened in CHI but those reports have been commissioned and published.

I understand the anger and frustration felt by many parents and children. Communications between clinicians, hospitals and parents should be a primary consideration and need to improve. There can be many challenges along the way and along the journey of any child who requires hospital treatment and surgery. Notwithstanding expertise and the various specialisms, basic communication with parents is something that can never be relegated as a priority. There have been issues in CHI in that regard.

A fundamental decision has been taken by the Minister for Health to bring CHI under the aegis of the HSE. I support that strongly. It is important in light of what has emerged. I believe the Minister, Deputy Harris, acted in good faith all along in this respect. He made his commitment in good faith based on interactions he would have had with the health authorities at the time. We will continue to prioritise all aspects of this area in terms of surgical capacity, governance and communications between families and clinicians.

I asked Simon Harris 13 months ago how many children were taken off the waiting list for scoliosis treatment. Some 13 months later, Simon Harris does not know the answer to that question. That is an incredible situation. The Taoiseach spoke about the folding of CHI into the HSE. I welcome that. It is something we pushed for. I had this debate with the Taoiseach. The truth of the matter is that unless you get to the core of the dysfunction at management level, it is not going to make a whit of difference. I also welcome that there is an investigation into this but the truth of the matter is that so impervious is the management of CHI to transparency on this issue that unless there are tools to force it to come before that investigation and provide papers, it is not worth a hill of beans. It is absolutely necessary that the Taoiseach can give a commitment to the families today that we are not just going to go through the motions in these actions and that they will mean something.

The other aspect of this is accountability has to be imposed on this Government. If there is no cost in terms of these actions by Ministers, there is no change. People are cursed to wake up morning after morning to these situations happening over and over.

The Minister and the Tánaiste have met with Gillian and Stephen and the advocates in respect of any potential inquiry and its structures. There will be further meetings in respect of an inquiry. There are a number under way into specific aspects within CHI. Ideally, they should inform the structure and nature of the inquiry. We have to be clear-eyed and honest with people about that in terms of timelines and a whole range of issues. The fundamental objective is to improve services and get timely access for children to surgery. I accept we are all accountable but it is only nine months since this Government was elected by Dáil Éireann as a government.

It is 15 years of Fine Gael in the Department.

In the general election, the people voted for everybody who is in this House. We formed a government following the general election. That is a fundamental point. Motions in themselves are not going to improve services but-----

Accountability.

-----proper examination through inquiries, yes.

Before I move to Questions on Policy or Legislation, I welcome to the Gallery a very prominent group of students from Coláiste Naomh Cormac in Kilcormac, County Offaly. The group recently reached the Gael Linn all-Ireland final in Irish debating. You are very welcome. Deputy Clendennen has them visiting.