The greed of Rotunda Hospital consultants on public-only contracts trying to get a way with still treating private patients in public hospitals has been front-page news all week. The Minister for Health has said she believes "in equality for every baby being born".

The idea that some mothers and babies should get better care because of having more money is absolutely abhorrent but the question is: should that equality for babies stop the moment that they leave the maternity hospital? There is an unpublished report by EY into Children's Health Ireland, CHI, which shows that is exactly what is happening. It shows that children whose parents cannot afford health insurance, that is, approximately half of all children in this country, are being forced to wait much, much longer for essential surgery. Hospital consultants are prioritising private patients over those on public lists. It shows that children who need urology surgery are waiting up to a year longer if they do not have private health insurance. Kids who need time-sensitive spinal surgery are waiting more than six months longer because their little bodies are less profitable to operate on.

I will give the Minister some examples from the report. Urology consultant 2 in this sample has 20 public child patients. The average waiting time for surgery in public is 12.4 months. For ten private patients the average waiting time is 1.84 months. For consultant 5, in orthopaedics, the average waiting time in public is 8.7 months while the average waiting time in private is two months. That is pretty much across the board in terms of a massive discrepancy of waiting time in public versus waiting time for private.

Everyone pretends that discrimination between private and public patients has no impact on safety or patient care but the review shows that to be untrue. Let me quote from it: "For Spinal patients, only 41% (9 out of 22) were treated within the Clinical Recommended Timeframes ... meaning 59% faced delays, sometimes for several months. Delays happened for both urgent and less urgent cases ... with a median delay of 143 days". We all remember poor Harvey Morrison Sherratt suffering in agony on a waiting list. In urology, "Of the 73 patients reviewed ... (41%) were treated outside the Clinical Recommended Timeframes ... The median delay was 152 days". There was one case where a child waited seven years for routine surgery.

The report points out that children may wait longer than clinically recommended for assessment, investigation or treatment, with potential consequences for clinical outcomes, disease progression and quality of life. So much for cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

Does the Minister agree that this is utterly horrendous and that all children should get equal access to healthcare? Does he agree that this report needs to be published immediately? Does he agree that just as private healthcare has no place in the Rotunda, it should have no place in Children's Health Ireland either?

I thank Deputy Murphy for his question. I am a firm believer in Sláintecare. It is one time when the Oireachtas came together and charted how health policy evolves irrespective of the change of Governments that we have within the country.

First of all, the Deputy is quoting from a leaked report, which I have not seen and have no knowledge of. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, commissioned a report - ordered the HSE to do so - into Children's Health Ireland because of significant concerns that she had. I would acknowledge the exceptional work the Minister has carried out over the past two weeks to protect the integrity of the State and to ensure patients get equality of care right across our economy. The great work that has been carried out with the public-only consultant contract should be pointed out. As of the end of May 2026, 3,416 consultants have signed up to the public-only consultant contract. Out of 2,196 consultants, that represents almost 70% of all consultants working in Ireland. As a result of that, we have to ensure that work is public only. The Minister is committed to doing that, in line with the terms as set out by Sláintecare which is very important. One of the critical things we can do with the public-only consultant contract is that, clinically, we can manage consultant availability with public demand. That will be very important as we see the challenges our health service faces in the years ahead.

It should be pointed out also that huge advances have taken place in a lot of hospitals across the country because of these changes. For example, in the Mater hospital, an additional 180 CT scans monthly and 84 MRI scans have taken place because of the public-only consultant contract. We see in other hospitals that many of the theatres are now operating at weekends. We get additional days out of consultants and, critically, the key decision-makers are in the room when patients have to be triaged and clinical decisions have to be made. Those senior consultants who are employed by the State on a public-only contract are available to make those decisions in support of patients, which is critical.

Sláintecare has had its challenges but the Government is very committed to deliver it. It has never been so committed as under the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. The Minister has demonstrated that with the increase in budget the Health Service Executive has received over the past number of years, which now is at record levels, with the support we have in preventative medicine, which is key, and with the support for our children.

No one wants to stand over any child in this State having to wait for urgent healthcare. That is not acceptable in any society and I say that as a father, understanding the needs and the genuine concerns families have right across our society.

The Minister's commitment to public healthcare is somewhat undermined by the fact that private suites are being built in the new national children's hospital right now - more inequality literally being built into the system even though private care in public hospitals is meant to be expiring.

I will ask again whether the Minister agrees that this report needs to be published. People have the right to see these figures which show the reality of the horrific effect of having private for-profit healthcare happening within our health system. What it means is worse health outcomes, longer times on waiting lists - sometimes in agony - and having poor outcomes at the end of it for kids whose parents do not have the money to have private healthcare. Is that okay? Is it okay that if you have private healthcare, you get to wait a lot less than if you have public healthcare? These are children. These are children who do not even make the choice about whether they have private healthcare or not.

Does the Minister agree that all children need to be treated equally, regardless of their health insurance status? Does he agree the report needs to be published? Does he agree that it is time to wipe private healthcare out of CHI and the whole public hospital system?

First of all, I reiterate I have not seen the report. I do not know when it will be completed. I do not know what version the Deputy has that has been leaked. I do not know whether the Minister has received it yet. The Minister for Health commissioned this report and asked for an investigation into the practices at CHI to ensure there was equity of treatment of patients. The Minister asked for this and the Deputy is quoting the results of it. I do not know whether the Minister has seen that report and what actions she will take on foot of it but I am confident she will take action. The Minister demonstrated that quite clearly over the past number of days when she assured the protection of the public-only consultant contract. The Minister has got results.

That is why I am clear in my view. The Government is very committed to Sláintecare and, critically, that all children are treated equally in our society. That is espoused in the Proclamation. It is something that we have strongly in our hearts as Irish people. We are doing everything we can to ensure there is equality of treatment for all our children.