I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me this opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment and the Minister of State for coming in to reply. It is particularly gratifying to get an adjournment debate on an inadequately answered parliamentary question. This is the most important way we have for extracting information and facts in this House. When one gets an inadequate reply, one which does not give any information, it is very good to be able to raise the subject matter on the Adjournment and try to extract that information. The information I was seeking was the number of children on a waiting list and the number of children going abroad for this operation. When the Minister was here on 8 November 1989 abroad for this operation. When the Minister was here on 8 November 1989 responding to the Adjournment debate he evaded the question. At that time he was asked how many children were on the waiting list and he did not respond. I hope that tonight's debate will extract from the Minister of State exactly what the situation is. I appeal to him not to evade the question on this occasion.
On the Adjournment debate on 8 November 1989, at column No. 2194 of the Official Report the Minister for Health, Deputy O'Hanlon, said:
The position is that services for children in need of neuro-surgery are being provided by the consultant neuro-surgeons at Beaumont Hospital.
That statement is not accurate. The Minister misled the Dáil and, I suggest, he continues to do so. In fact, a great deal of suffering, worry and stress is felt by parents and children in need of paediatric neuro-surgery which they are not getting at Beaumont.
I am very concerned for this powerless group who are caught up in the regrettable conflict of over one year ago when a paediatric neuro-surgeon, Mr. Patrick O'Neill, was unceremoniously sacked from Beaumont Hospital. That was nothing more than a case of professional jealousy and was a grave injustice to one man.
What have been the effects since then? All efforts to recruit a replacement for Mr. O'Neill were unsuccessful. I am aware that the hospital went through a recruitment procedure and attempted to get a replacement for Mr. O'Neill both at home and abroad. That attempt has not been successful. The situation is that Beaumont Hospital is now without a paediatric neuro-surgeon. It is a disgrace. Children are either left on a waiting list — a list of which I cannot extract the size — or sent abroad for operations which Mr. O'Neill performed when he was in Beaumont and for which children had to go abroad before he was appointed. I cannot get details of the number of children going abroad. I got information from one parent I met while I was in Glasgow recently. Three weeks ago on 1 May I asked at column No. 127, of the Official Report, the following question:
Mrs. Fennell asked the Minister for Health the number of Irish children who went abroad for neuro-surgical services in the past 12 months; the locations to which they went; and the number of children under seven years of age who are awaiting neuro-surgery in Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9.
The answer I got was an attempt to mislead, which is as follows:
Minister for Health (Dr. O'Hanlon): The compiling of the figures requested by the Deputy will take some time. I will forward these figures to the Deputy in the very near future.
Does the compiling of figures take three weeks? We are entitled to this information unless the figures is so enormous that it takes a very long time to compile the information. I suggest it should not take three weeks.
When I was in Glasgow at Easter I met a mother who brought her child there for neuro-surgery. I met her by accident in a city park where she was sitting very lonely and very unhappy, while her child was having treatment. I asked her if there were so many cases that it takes months to compile them or was the Minister's reply of 1 May 1990 another cover up for professional mismanagement and political bungling? I ask — I thought the Minister would be here to reply — what is the position relating to the seven months' old baby girl from the Minister's constituency? This baby was operated on today by Mr. O'Neill in the Mater Hospital. She had been referred there by neuro-surgeons at Beaumont Hospital. First, she was in Crumlin Hospital, then transferred to Beaumont and as her mother said she was passed from Billy to Jack. She was not told what was wrong with the child, what could be done or when it could be done. Subsequently the child had a scan and the surgeon in Beaumont told her mother he did not have the experience to do the necessary spinal operations and he referred the child to Mr. O'Neill. Mr. O'Neill took the child, examined her, did a scan and at 12.30 p.m. today performed the necessary surgery.
Those parents have only VHI "A" cover plan and the hospital bill they are facing is for £2,000 for seven days and £200 per day thereafter, not counting the surgery fee. These people cannot afford this. I know they said so to the Minister in his clinic and, as far as I know, got no satisfaction. It is ludicrous that a man with the skills and talent of Mr. O'Neill who was doing extremely good work in the public health service, but through some bungling, maladministration or whatever it was, was sacked and he is now in a private clinic doing extremely good work, and having children referred to him privately. Only in Ireland would something like that happen. Will the Minister give a commitment here that this couple will have their costs met by his Department? Will he further give a commitment that all other children needing specialised neuro-surgery will have the best treatment possible, which at present is with Mr. O'Neill in the Mater Hospital?
Perhaps it is time the Minister or somebody in his Department set up a reconciliation process to enable Mr. O'Neill to return to public medicine where his skills will be available to all children, particularly children in the public sector area. At present he is available only to the privileged few who can afford to pay.
This debate is continuing the one in November and it was also in an adjournment debate that Deputy Carey and Deputy Boylan said many harsh things. The issue will not go away. I can assure the Minister that we in this House will continue to campaign for the children in need. At present there is no confidence in our paediatric neuro-surgery services. The Minister for Health has a responsibility to resolve this problem. The buck stops with him, and he should stop pretending that everything is hunky-dory, that everything is fine, and when parents and children from all over the country come to Beaumont for help, they are not getting it and they have to take their children abroad for operations, and all that entails — being separated from family in a strange hotel, having nobody to talk to or confide in and so on. That is not desirable. At the same time Deputies are unable to get information about what exactly is happening. I trust the Minister will end that state of affairs in this debate today.
