Probe needed into €19m 'misspent' scoliosis funds

Senator Tom Clonan, a co-sponsor of the Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024, said: 'I’m a senator but I’m also a parent and a carer to a young man who had that spinal surgery for scoliosis back in 2017.' File photo: Norma Burke /PA

An urgent investigation is needed into how €19m was “misspent” and diverted away from spinal surgery care at Children’s Health Ireland, Senator Tom Clonan has said.

He described as "scandalous" the revelations that a dedicated fund given to CHI in 2022 for children’s orthopaedic surgery on spina bifida and scoliosis was instead spent “far more broadly”.