Carol Nolan on CHI failures and the need for accountability
Carol Nolan criticised Children's Health Ireland (CHI) for systemic failures and urged political accountability and better communication with parents. She reviewed CHI's record since its 2019 establishment and highlighted the National Children's Hospital as a recent and blatant failure.
Carol Nolan said she was "appalled at the sheer horror that has characterised its grievous failures" since CHI was established in 2019 and described long-standing service deficits that have left children on the receiving end of appalling care.
She recalled the September 2018 debate when the Children's Health Bill was introduced by the former Minister for Health, noting that the bill gave CHI a statutory remit and broadly worded functions for education, research, philanthropy and advocacy on children's healthcare.
Carol Nolan emphasised that the new entity was to be led by a 12-member competency-based board appointed by the minister, and she argued this creates an element of political and ministerial accountability that cannot be evaded. She warned that without insisting on political accountability the cycle of institutional failures will continue.
She reported meeting a parent who had fought for a child's operation and described a serious vacuum in communication with families. Carol Nolan called for improved communication with parents of children affected by delays or awaiting major operations, saying that communication should be easily fixed.
Main criticism
Carol Nolan said she was "appalled at the sheer horror that has characterised its grievous failures" since CHI was established in 2019 and described long-standing service deficits that have left children on the receiving end of appalling care.
Statutory remit and origins
She recalled the September 2018 debate when the Children's Health Bill was introduced by the former Minister for Health, noting that the bill gave CHI a statutory remit and broadly worded functions for education, research, philanthropy and advocacy on children's healthcare.
Governance and political accountability
Carol Nolan emphasised that the new entity was to be led by a 12-member competency-based board appointed by the minister, and she argued this creates an element of political and ministerial accountability that cannot be evaded. She warned that without insisting on political accountability the cycle of institutional failures will continue.
Parents and communication
She reported meeting a parent who had fought for a child's operation and described a serious vacuum in communication with families. Carol Nolan called for improved communication with parents of children affected by delays or awaiting major operations, saying that communication should be easily fixed.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Other speeches
Tego samego dnia All speeches from this day →
Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy demands referendum on abolishing triple lock
Sharon Keogan
Sharon Keogan: Condemns open border policy after mass Dublin rally
Richard O'Donoghue
Richard O'Donoghue presses minister on support for mother of three
Rose Conway-Walsh
Rose Conway-Walsh presses government on AI regulation and energy risks
Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy accuses Brendan McDonagh of causing housing crisis
Mary Lou McDonald
'DOUBLE-JOBBING HOUSING MINISTER' - Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 29 Apr 2025
Transcript
Minister I welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important matter here tonight and obviously it's very upsetting for so many parents across this state and for even TDs here as well who have had personal experience in some cases or in some form. At the outset I want to note that we should always at least try and avoid the temptation to make any single institution the scapegoat for what are clearly systematic problems around governance and the care of children in the Irish health service and I do want to note that we do have fantastic people working in the health service but where there are issues and where mistakes are made we need responsibility and we need accountability and we need the problems to be resolved and we need to make sure that they never occur again and I think that's something that we all need to be committed to. Unfortunately children are on the receiving end of appalling service deficits and have been long before the CHI scandal arrived on the scene and that being said it is impossible to stand here having reviewed the record of CHI since 2019 when it was established and be anything other than appalled at the sheer horror that has characterised its grievous failures. I look back now at the debate in September 2018 when the Children's Health Bill was introduced by former Minister for Health Simon Harris. This bill provides CHI with its statutory remit and at the time Minister Harris stated that CHI had been given broadly worded functions that would provide clarity, authority and certainty relating to its leadership role nationally in paediatric healthcare and the national model of care. It will deliver on its remit for education, research, philanthropy and advocacy on behalf of children's healthcare in this country. Minister Harris also stated that the new entity would be led by a 12 member competency-based board appointed by the Minister for Health. This makes it absolutely clear that there is an element of political and ministerial accountability here that cannot be evaded. The ministers that have been and gone appointed the leadership of CHI and yet time and time again it has displayed catastrophic failures of judgment of which the National Children's Hospital is the most recent and most blatant. We can sit here and rightly condemn CHI for its institutional failures but we must also insist on political accountability or this cycle of vicious incompetence will never end. I have actually met the parent of a child who has fought for so long to get an operation for her child and what she has said to me is that as well as the frustration and the upset there is a serious vacuum when it comes to communication and that certainly is something that should be easily fixed. We need communication with parents whose children are caught up in this, or parents of children who are still waiting for important and big operations. Thank you.