Simon Harris to meet Harvey Morrison Sherratt’s mother amid resignation calls

In a post on X, Gillian ­Sheratt said she had received a call from the Fine Gael leader and that they have ­"tentatively" agreed to meet. This was mirrored by a statement from the Tánaiste.

The phone call comes two weeks after the death of Ms Sherratt’s son, Harvey, who suffered from scoliosis and spina bifida. The nine-year-old received scoliosis surgery in November of last year despite being placed on a waiting list in February of 2022.

Mr Harris had made a promise in September of last year that he would be meeting with the family. Ms Sherratt says this meeting never took place.

Ms Sherratt and her husband, Stephen, had previously called for a vote of no confidence in Mr Harris saying both the Government and Children’s Health ­Ireland needed to be held to account.

Ms Sherratt is now calling for the resignation of Mr Harris saying: "Harvey had to compromise on his care for the entirety of his life and we won’t be accepting any compromises now."

Tánaiste Simon Harris.

Mr Harris also announced that he had asked the Minister of Health for a multidisciplinary report on the timeline of care for Harvey.

 The Fine Gael leader was defended by his Minister of Finance, Paschal Donohoe, yesterday. Mr Donohoe said he had seen first-hand the commitment Mr Harris has to supporting the families of those who are dealing with scoliosis.

The Fine Gael TD noted that despite not meeting the family, Mr Harris had acted on the specific case of Harvey saying: "When he became aware of the needs of the particular family in question here, he did all he could in terms of engaging with the Department of Health, in terms of engaging with the HSE."

Mr Donohoe also responded to the allegations that there was a lack of accountability within the party regarding the situation: "We have acknowledged that for ­families with loved ones with scoliosis, our health service did needs to do better."

Mr Harris had been facing threats of a no-confidence vote from opposition parties.

The leader of Aontú, Peadar Tóibín said the situation was "absolutely unforgivable" and called for Mr Harris to resign.

He also wrote to the chair of the health committee asking that it be reconvened so Mr Harris could appear before it.

"The key element in all of this is we have to learn in ­relation to what’s going wrong so that this doesn’t happen to other ­children," he said.

In a statement yesterday, ­People Before Profit TD, Paul Murphy called the case a "damning failure".

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.