{"id":94693,"date":"2025-10-21T12:20:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T12:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/94693\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T12:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T12:20:23","slug":"tanaiste-to-face-no-confidence-motion-over-handling-of-childrens-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/94693\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanaiste to face no confidence motion over handling of children’s healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

The motion follows a series of scandals at CHI including the implanting of non-surgical springs into child patients, unnecessary hip surgeries, the security of health records, and issues around in-sourcingTanaiste Simon Harris<\/p>\n

The Tanaiste will face a motion of no confidence over his handling of children’s healthcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aontu said it was bringing the motion against Simon Harris<\/a> due to a “failed promise” on child spinal surgeries and overall “dysfunction” in Children\u2019s Health Ireland (CHI)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Party leader Peadar Toibin<\/a> told reporters on Tuesday: “We believe, if you look at the crisis within CHI and the crisis within the National Children\u2019s Hospital that Simon Harris is not fit to be a minister in this Government, and we are calling for his resignation.”<\/p>\n

The vote will be held on Wednesday October 22, two days before the presidential election<\/a> in which the candidate for Mr Harris\u2019s Fine Gael \u2013 former party deputy leader Heather Humphreys<\/a> \u2013 will go up against left-wing independent Catherine Connolly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The motion follows a series of scandals at CHI including the implanting of non-surgical springs into child patients, unnecessary hip surgeries, the security of health records, and issues around in-sourcing.<\/p>\n

Tanaiste Simon Harris<\/p>\n

It also comes after the death of a nine-year-old renewed focus on child spinal surgery waiting times.<\/p>\n

While health minister<\/a> in 2017, Mr Harris pledged that no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis treatment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt<\/a> died after waiting years for spinal surgery during which time the curve in his spine went from 75 degrees to 130 degrees.<\/p>\n

By the time Harvey received spinal surgery last December, the curve had reached the point where it could not be fully corrected.<\/p>\n

The curve caused his rib cage to twist around his lungs and heart, severely restricting his breathing.<\/p>\n

\"HarveyHarvey Morrison Sherratt(Image: rip.ie)<\/p>\n

Harvey died on July 29. His parents, Stephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt, have also called for Mr Harris\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at Leinster House<\/a> on Tuesday, Aontu leader Mr Toibin said: “We are going to launch a motion of no confidence into Simon Harris in relation to the crisis that has happened over the summer with regards to CHI.”<\/p>\n

He added: “During the summer, there was a tragic loss of Harvey Sherratt, a young boy who waited for months in relation to trying to receive an operation that was a life-saving operation that he needed to be able to survive and to be able to live in good health.<\/p>\n

“And tragically, Harvey Sherratt\u2019s life was lost during the summer and we, as a party, believe in the necessity for accountability \u2013 both accountability in terms of the finances of the country but also, most importantly, in terms of human life.<\/p>\n

“Simon Harris, when he was Minister for Health, stated that no child would wait for more than four months for a scoliosis operation.<\/p>\n

“He failed significantly in that promise and we have a situation where hundreds of children in that period of time have been forced to wait for far longer than those four months.”<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The motion follows a series of scandals at CHI including the implanting of non-surgical springs into child patients,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3775,103,397,396,61,60,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-94693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-fine-gael","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-simon-harris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}