Murphy slams Harris over broken promise to Harvey’s parents

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has branded Tánaiste Simon Harris’s failure to meet the parents of nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt before the child’s death as “an unforgivable insult.”

Harvey, who died on July 29, had been on a Children’s Health Ireland waiting list for scoliosis surgery since 2022 but was removed without his parents’ knowledge.

After Gillian and Stephen Morrison Sherratt raised the issue, Harvey finally underwent surgery last November. The long-delayed procedure did not save him.

Murphy said Harvey’s death had “broken his parents’ hearts and brought an outpouring of grief across the country,” while also sparking outrage at delays and “a lack of respect” from the HSE, successive health ministers and Harris himself.

He highlighted Harris’s promise last September to meet Harvey’s parents, a commitment that was not honoured before the child’s death ten months later.

“This is an unforgivable insult and the Tánaiste has very serious questions to answer,” Murphy said.

The TD added that Harris must now issue an urgent statement that satisfies Harvey’s parents, or face a vote of no confidence in the Dáil as demanded by Gillian and Stephen.

Murphy also backed their call for a public inquiry into Children’s Health Ireland, which he described as “riven with dysfunction and profiteering that is costing the health and the lives of children.”

“Harvey and many other children have been and continue to be failed by the government and by the CHI,” he said.

“Political failures, greed and incompetence cannot be allowed to cost the health and lives of any more children.”