Ex-health minister's last act was ordering spinal surgeries abroad for children on waiting list

The care package offered by the HSE to each child includes travel, airport and hospital travels, travel insurance, accommodation, and daily expenses

Former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly acknowledged that while it would be 'preferable' to offer children in Ireland 'timely access to care here... the overseas option has provided much-needed additional capacity'.

Former health minister Stephen Donnelly ordered the HSE to offer spinal surgeries abroad to all children who had been waiting for longer than four months in one of his last official acts in office.

Mr Donnelly wrote to the chair of the HSE Ciaran Devane on January 21, two days before the new Government was formed, instructing that all 54 such children who had been waiting for surgery should be offered the option of treatment in either New York or London.