THE PARENTS OF nine year old Harvey Morrison Sherratt, who died in July following a long wait for surgery for scoliosis, said they are to meet with Tánaiste Simon Harris on 29 September.

Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison have previously called for Harris to resign from politics over continued and prolonged waiting lists for children requiring scoliosis surgery and inadequate services for children born with spina bifida.

In 2017, while he was Minister for Health, Harris pledged that no child would wait longer than four months for spinal surgery.

Born with spina bifida, hydrocephalus and developing scoliosis, Harvey was also partially paralysed and non-verbal. He died on 29 July, eight months after eventually having surgery having waited years for his operation.

Harris spoke by phone to the family following Harvey’s death, but Ms Sherratt said this conversation was “a bit too, little too late, in my opinion”.

“You know, he made that promise in 2017 and then last year, he had stood up in the Da2il, and said that he’d meet us, and he didn’t, and that’s one of the big reasons that we’ve been calling him out.”

Ms Sherratt said that she and other families with children requiring surgery and advocacy groups had for “years” told the Tánaiste and other politicians about their “concern” about scoliosis and spina bifida services run by Children’s Health Ireland (CHI).

“If Harvey had timely access to childcare, he wouldn’t have missed so much of his childhood”

The incredibly brave Gillian Sherratt and Stephen Morrison who joined us tonight sharing the heartbreaking story of losing their son Harvey, and why they have formed a campaign in his… pic.twitter.com/H2IsOCjjxw

— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) September 19, 2025

“I feel like maybe if he’d [Simon Harris] had listened, maybe things would have been different, and Harvey would still be here today,” Ms Sherratt said, speaking as a guest on the Late Late Show, last Friday night.

“I said to him that it’s a pity that it took our child dying to have him willing to meet us now, because he ignored me when I tried last year.”

“[Harris] was incredibly apologetic, but as far as I’m concerned, an apology doesn’t help these children.”

“So we’re going to meet with him on the 29th of September, and we’re going to be outlining exactly what we need to see real change for these children, and until then, we won’t stop.”

Harvey’s parents will also ask Harris to support their call for a statutory inquiry into CHI’s handling of Spina Bifida and scoliosis services.

The have also called for the HSE to disband (CHI) and take over the running of these services, as well as the controversial new children’s hospital.

Ms Sherratt said in August 2024, she discovered that Harvey’s name was inexplicably no longer on CHI’s urgent surgery waiting list after she contacted it about Harvey’s surgery plan when the curve on his spine had reached life-threatening proportions.

At that stage Harvey’s ribcage was twisted, crushing his lungs, and putting pressure on his heart.

“At the end of August 2024 we found out, without anyone telling us they’d removed him from the surgical list with a curve of 110 degrees and no plan…We still don’t know (why),” Ms Sherratt said.

Mr Morrison said they still have not been told why this happened: “We have asked the question numerous times, and that answer hasn’t been hasn’t been given to us.”

Harvey’s mission to have surgery was beset by delays which his parents said they are still in the dark about.

Ms Sherratt said her son was added to the urgent surgical waiting list in February 2022, and his surgery was initially planned for August 2022, “but August came and went and we heard nothing”.

“And then in March of 2023 we got a letter in the door with a date for surgery for April, but then that was very quickly canceled without any explanation.”

“Then in that year, Harvey’s health really started to take a decline, and we were finding that they weren’t reviewing him as often as they had been.”

Ms Sherratt said her son’s case is not an isolated case and that if there is not change in governance at CHI “it’s only going to get worse” for children still waiting for surgery and supports.

“I’m also acutely aware that there are parents all over this country that currently don’t feel like they can trust their children’s medical providers,” Ms Sherratt said.

“And I think a big issue with that is the complete lack of transparency and the lack of answers and clarity into what has been allowed go on in CHI, and like, just as an example, like, since 2014 there’s been 12 reviews or 12 reports done, and they’ve only published six.”

Last month, under the social media hashtag #JusticeForHarvey, Harvey’s parents, supported by thousands, took their campaign for change to the streets of Dublin

CHI has apologised following several crises including children being implanted with unauthorised non-medical grade springs, a review of hip dysplasia services which indicated indicated up to 60 per cent of a type of hip operation performed on children was unnecessary, and a report claiming a CHI consultant, who was paid thousands of euro by the State’s National Treatment Purchase Fund, breached guidelines by referring public patients to their own private weekend clinics.

Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll McNeill, said last week she “not satisfied” with CHI’s spinal surgery plans for 2025 and wanted further explanation as to how it was going to reduce the surgery waiting lists.

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Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said Harvey was “failed” by the State and that the number of children awaiting spinal surgery had risen from 108 to 135, with 40 children waiting more than six months.

Consultant surgeon, David Moore, who is leading a government sanctioned CHI spinal surgery management said last week that the average wait for surgery had been reduced to five months; that 342 surgeries have been performed since the start of 2025, but he said, 370 patients had been added to the surgery waiting list.

CHI said it was “actively working” to reducing wait times. It acknowledged that some children are waiting “several months for their first appointment” but it added it had hired a consultant spinal surgeon last August.

It argued that it was expanding clinic capacity and prioritising “long waiters” and that its “focus remains on making sure every child has timely access to spinal care”.

Stephen Morrison said families like his “have been talking about this for 10 years now” and he said children with complex orthopaedic conditions now need to be “prioritised” for surgery.

“I think now is a very particular moment in time where we all have to come together and try to get this sorted,” Mr Morrison added.

Harvey’s parents said a cross party Dáil motion was being mooted to try to speed up timely access to adequate healthcare particularly for children with complex health needs.

“We just hope it gets better, it’s the sickest kids that are waiting the longest. And the problem is that the longer they leave them, the more complex they get and then it’s even harder to do the surgeries,” said Ms Sherratt.

“So we are going to keep pushing. We’re going to keep trying to make sure that the system changes.”

“It is an ableist system that prioritises the typically healthy children over our disabled children, and they need to put more of an emphasis on to how they can treat our kids.”

“Our kids can’t travel, our kids can’t get treatment in the private hospitals, so we need to see a bigger emphasis on in-sourcing and bring the specialists into the country to treat the kids, because at the moment, like it’s only going to get worse.”

CHI told the Late Late Show: “We extend our deepest condolences to Harvey’s family. Many of our clinicians have cared for Harvey his whole life and are deeply affected by his passing. We remain available to meet Harvey’s family if and when they wish to do so. The CHI cannot comment publicly about details of Harvey’s individual case, even if a family decides to make their story public, we are still bound by patient confidentiality.”

Ms Sherratt responded: “But we are not (bound by confidentiality) and I think it would be a good legacy for Harvey, if we can see some real positive change from his life.”