At least eight seriously ill children were selected for medical evacuation from Gaza to Ireland in June, but paediatric patients are not expected to be flown out of the Middle East until September.
A number of Irish doctors have confirmed they have agreed to treat specific patients from Ireland’s most recent evacuation list. They remain concerned about delays in flying critically sick and injured children out of Gaza via Egypt.
The Irish Times reported last week that doctors were told the medical evacuation of up to 18 children had stalled amid a concern over visas for the children’s siblings.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill now intends to bring a memo to Cabinet to recognise that Ireland must also evacuate patients’ siblings for humanitarian reasons.
It was announced in September 2024 that Ireland would evacuate up to 30 sick children from Gaza, but the Government at the time had only agreed to bring each patient accompanied by one guardian.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said: “While the initial agreement allowed for one patient and one accompanying carer, we have in fact been facilitating the arrival of up to three immediate family members per child.”
She said she believes this approach “better reflects the urgent and compassionate nature of the situation”.
She intends to formalise this and will seek the Government’s approval for this “more humanitarian approach”, she said.
“I fully expect to be back at Dublin Airport in the autumn to welcome the next group of children and their families.”
Two successful missions in December and May flew 12 paediatric patients to Ireland via Egypt. The children were accompanied by a mother or carer, while 21 other family members were also present. For humanitarian reasons, Ireland was not able to leave siblings of patients alone in Gaza without a surviving parent.
This had prompted concerns in the Department of Health and Department of Justice that the Government had gone beyond what Ministers originally agreed to. Officials from both departments will meet to discuss the matter.
Last weekend, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald wrote to Tánaiste Simon Harris to raise concerns that medical evacuations from Gaza have stalled. In response, Ms Carroll MacNeill wrote to Ms McDonald on Monday to confirm that Government departments and agencies were “fully engaged to honour Ireland’s commitment to receive up to 30 paediatric patients and their carers”.
She said she looked forward to welcoming a third group of paediatric patients from Gaza and their carers and accompanying family members in the autumn when they have been clinically identified by the World Health Organisation and the HSE.
But The Irish Times understands the HSE was informed that Children’s Health Ireland had approved eight sick children for evacuation to Ireland last month. A number of doctors in Temple Street and Crumlin Children’s Hospital have also confirmed they already agreed they have capacity to take specific children from a list of patients who were identified for treatment in Ireland.
A number of children previously identified for clinical treatment in Ireland have since died. These children were separate from the more recent group of eight.
Dr Morgan McMonagle, an Irish consultant vascular and trauma surgeon who has worked on medical humanitarian missions in Gaza, said he is concerned that if the Government waits until September “there is a very, very good chance that Gaza won’t exist, at the rate things are going”.
“Even for people who aren’t injured, the chances of them being dead by September are very, very high as well.”
