THE PARENTS OF Harvey Morrison Sherratt, a nine-year-old boy who died on 29 July who had waited years for scoliosis surgery, have said that they do not hold Tánaiste Simon Harris “directly responsible” for their child’s death. 

In a statement issued last night on social media, Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison said that they hold Harris accountable for his failure to keep the promise he made when he was Health Minister in 2017 that no child would wait more than four months for scoliosis surgery and for his failure to meet them to discuss Harvey’s case while their child was alive. 

Harris is planning to meet the parents soon, and has requested an inter-disciplinary report into Harvey’s care to be put together via the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. 

In their statement, Harvey’s parents said that anyone who is holding Harris directly responsible for their child’s death is doing so “against our own wishes”. 

“Our issue with him is purely political and not personal. For anyone commenting on his posts or Government posts and calling for #JusticeForHarvey, we ask that if you are using Harvey’s name that you do so in a respectful way,” they said. 

People up and down the country have been vocal in their support for the parents of Harvey Morrison Sherrat following his death after the familiy faced years of struggle to access care. Gillian Sherrat Gillian Sherrat

Harvey’s parents have called for Harris to resign for his failure to keep promises he made in relation to the care of children with scoliosis, and that call has been taken up by Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín. 

Tóibín has also said that the presidential election will now be a “referendum on Simon Harris”, and said that his party will seek to table a motion of no confidence in the Fine Gael leader. 

A protest will be held in Dublin city this Saturday to “call on Government to make it so no child or family will ever have to suffer through what [Harvey's parents] and Harvey have suffered through”. 

On X and other social media platforms, attacks on Harris have become highly personal, with multiple accounts branding the politician a “child killer”. 

Harris faced immense backlash for attending an Oasis concert during the weekend as well. 

Yesterday evening, Harvey’s parents said that they want the march on Saturday to be “peaceful”. 

“This is a march to call out systematic failures within Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and to call for change within paediatric healthcare,” they said. 

The parents have also called for people not to bring signage and flags along to the march in support of other causes, as they do not want their call for urgent paediatric healthcare reform to be diluted. 

Harvey Morrison Sherratt was born with both spina bifida and scoliosis. 

His parents have said that not only was his surgery delayed for months, he was also at one point removed from the waiting list unbeknownst to them. 

More widely, CHI, the HSE and the Government have been widely criticised by advocacy groups and the opposition for their handling of a series of crises involving children’s healthcare in Ireland over the last two years. 

Not only have many children faced delays for surgery with CHI, unnecessary hip surgeries have also been performed on children who didn’t need them, a report has found.