I wish to raise, by way of update, the situation in respect of Children's Hospital Ireland, CHI, as it impacts on disabled children with scoliosis and other complications arising from having been left on waiting lists for catastrophically long periods of time. I reiterate that the medical device directive at European Union level came into effect around 2018 or 2019, and was then translated into the medical device regulations, MDRs, in 2021. As such, it was the sole topic of conversation in surgical units throughout the State.

Around that time, a number of Irish surgeons were sent to Lisbon to attend a conference at which the Utrecht team pioneering the use of springs was presenting. The surgeons involved came home and reported the learnings from this, and later, springs and devices were ordered through clinical engineering in the procurement process overseen by CHI. That all reflects on the credibility of anybody on the board of CHI, whether the CEO, the chief medical officer, or any of the executive clinical directors who said they had no conversations about off-label, in-house or custom-made surgical devices in that context. I also note the lack of urgency with regard to the plight now faced by disabled children on surgical waiting lists in Ireland. In fact, to my knowledge, no orthopaedic surgery is now being carried out on any disabled child in Ireland. I will repeat that: no orthopaedic surgery is being carried out on any disabled children in Ireland. None. I have learned that in the last number of weeks, one child awaiting surgery has become permanently paralysed as a consequence.

Senators probably remember the cave rescue of 12 children in Thailand in 2018, where the whole world mobilised its resources to assist those children. They may remember the children who were trapped in a cable car in Pakistan in recent weeks.

A whole continent mobilised its resources to help those children. For how long have we in Ireland had disabled children on surgical waiting lists who are not receiving the interventions they need? Able-bodied children are being sent abroad under the National Treatment Purchase Fund to places like Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, while disabled children are not. As I have stated previously, it is my lived experience that the reason our disabled children are being left to become permanently impaired is that in this country disabled citizens and children are not valued as human beings to the same extent as others are - for shame. We need to exercise the urgency that is being exercised in mature, caring societies. I call for an urgent debate with the relevant Ministers and the people responsible. We need to start to treat disabled children. They should not be left on these lists.

That is a shocking message from Senator Clonan this morning. It is an indictment of Government failure in relation to the health service.

I have to speak of another consistent failure of the health service in Ireland, namely, University Hospital Limerick where yet another record was set yesterday when 130 patients were left on trolleys. That is the highest number ever recorded in any hospital in the State. It is hard to keep talking about these figures, as I have done for the seven and a half years I have been in the House. Clearly, the Government has not been listening. Things continue to get worse year after year. So far this October, 1,632 people have been treated on trolleys. At the same time last year, the figure was 1,268.

The total number of people treated on trolleys last year - 18,000 - will be exceeded this year. Every year the figures not only get worse; they get far worse. It is an indictment of 12 years of Fine Gael failure and seven years of Fianna Fáil failure, and a particular indictment of the current Minister for Health. He came into office promising so much but has not delivered in University Hospital Limerick.

To show how serious this matter is, according to research, over 1,300 people died unnecessarily in the health service last year as a result of being left on trolleys. The statistics show that for every 82 persons who spend more than six hours on a trolley, one will die in the following 30 days. Imagine how many unnecessary deaths we have had in Limerick because of this consistent Government failure.

It does not help that we have a Minister in denial. Earlier this year, he insisted in this House that there were only six patients on trolleys when the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, was telling us there were 78 patients on trolleys. If the Minister does not even accept the INMO figures for patients on trolleys, how on earth does he have any credibility in understanding the extent and the depth of the crisis in University Hospital Limerick?

It only makes matters worse that the Minister has since been thrown under the bus by the Minister for Finance in respect of a €2 billion shortfall in health spending. One of the key factors in this regard is the recruitment freeze. Right now, it is impossible for University Hospital Limerick to hire healthcare assistants. I know from personal experience that healthcare assistants are choosing to leave the health service because of the impossible working conditions. The staff are performing heroically but some are choosing to leave and the Government is saying the health service cannot replace them. As we head into the winter crisis, we can only see things going from bad to worse and worse again. This is an indictment of the failure of successive Governments, particularly the current Minister.

I call for an urgent debate because we cannot waste another year facing into this crisis with a Minister telling us things are getting better, as the Minister did during the summer months, when, in fact, things continue to get worse. The situation is dire. It is disastrous and a disgraceful reflection of the failures of this Government.