Harris says Government will respond ‘very swiftly’ to confidence motion

The Government will address a motion of no confidence in the Tanaiste “very swiftly”, Simon Harris has said.

Aontu said it was bringing the motion against Mr Harris due to a “failed promise” on child spinal surgeries and overall “dysfunction” in Children’s Health Ireland (CHI).

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

Aontu would have called for the vote to be held on Wednesday October 22, two days before the presidential election in which the candidate for Mr Harris’s Fine Gael – former party deputy leader Heather Humphreys – will go up against left-wing independent Catherine Connolly.

However, Mr Harris suggested that it “could well happen” that a Government counter-motion could be called as early as this week – noting that the original motion had been well flagged for several weeks.

“That’s a matter for the whips but I think that could well happen. Generally, governments move confidence motions quite quickly.”

Asked if that would provide him more time to refocus on the presidential campaign, he replied: “I don’t need any time to refocus, I’m entirely focused.”

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.

It also comes after the death of a nine-year-old renewed focus on child spinal surgery waiting times.

While health minister in 2017, Mr Harris pledged that no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis treatment.

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

By the time Harvey received spinal surgery last December, the curve had reached the point where it could not be fully corrected.

The curve caused his rib cage to twist around his lungs and heart, severely restricting his breathing.

Harvey died on July 29. His parents, Stephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt, have also called for Mr Harris’s resignation.

Speaking to reporters at Leinster House 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.”

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.

“And tragically, Harvey Sherratt’s life was lost during the summer and we, as a party, believe in the necessity for accountability – both accountability in terms of the finances of the country but also, most importantly, in terms of human life.

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

“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.”