Mattie McGrath: Condemns HSE Failings and Child Health Crisis
Mattie McGrath spoke about failings in the HSE and child healthcare, criticising waste, lack of oversight and failures to deliver care. He expressed sympathy for the Carter family and other affected families and called for accountability from the minister and the Department of Health.
Main criticisms
He praised HSE staff but criticised the running of the HSE and the Department of Health, calling the situation truly horrific and a "horror story". He said money had been gobbled up, wasted, abused and misused and that there remains no accountability for what happened.
Accountability and ministerial promises
He recalled a 2017 ministerial promise that no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis operations and noted that 120 children now wait over 12 months. He challenged whether the minister ever checks back on such statements or examines the measures of hope offered to patients and families.
Children's services and mental health
He raised concerns about the children's hospital contracts and highlighted the CAM situation in South Tipperary as appalling. He referenced recent childcare protests and warned that the youngest and most vulnerable are being failed by successive administrations and departments of health.
Financial concerns and consequences
He said annual health spending rose from around 8 or 9 or 10 billion in 2007 to over 21 or two now and that the system is facing a 1 billion overrun. He described the situation as a runaway gravy train and insisted the children of Ireland deserve more.
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I would like to thank everybody that works in the HSE and the great work that goes on in many hospitals and front line nurses, doctors and surgeons and everybody else, and secretarial staff, but just as huge issues around the Minister, a Minister around the whole running of the HSE and the Department of Health, I too want to sympathise with the Carter family and the other 18 families and 17 families involved here. This is truly horrific by any standards, horrific, it's a horror story. You'd imagine that you were in a third world country, but when I came here first in 2007, I think, and I didn't take the figures exactly, but it was around 8 or 9 or 10 billion a year. Now it's over 21 or two, and we're facing a 1 billion overrun. So money has been gobbled up, wasted, abused, misused, shocking, and we still haven't any accountability here for what happened, what was wrong here. I'm not a wish-earned against this surgeon, but I mean, where are the oversights? Minister Harris, in your chair, said in 2017 that no child will wait for scoliosis operations more than four months. Today, there are 120 waiting over 12 months. Minister, do you ever check back on the statements that she sent out and the measures of hope you might give in those statements to the parents, first of all to the patients, but to the parents and the wider families, do you ever examine that? Can you sleep at night? It's not money, is the problem with the development of health and HD. It couldn't be money. And we didn't look at the children's hospital. A runaway gravy train for God knows whoever, and the fact that those contracts were signed, and what's going on there, and the way it's left. The children of Ireland deserve more. We just came from a mental health briefing in the AV room, and the CAM situation in South Tipperary is just appalling. So, it just goes to show that children in our country and being married, they can't get driver's licence young people, they can't get any kind of facilities, but mental health, above all else, they can't get them, and they haven't resources. And we saw the child care of people today protesting outside. Why are our youngest and brightest future, and our most vulnerable, being black-eared by this government and administration, and by several administrations, and by departments of health, and successive ministers, and, like adding, is all I could call it. It seems that there is some kind of an uncaring attitude, and our constitution says we will cherish the children equally, and we all want to aspire to that, and anyone with children and grandchildren knows that. This is truly shocking, and no words can, you know, I fail for words at the true horror of this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now, our...
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