Ms Mary Gorman:

I will add to Ms Leahy's comments on community midwifery services. There are quite a number of pockets in different places all over the country - Dublin, Cork, Galway and midwifery-led units, MLUs, in Drogheda and Cavan - where there are quite good services. However, it was recognised in the strategy that they were only in pockets, and it is a matter of getting the driver to roll them out across the country. This can be done in an incremental phase, but we need to get a driver or task force to implement and roll out community midwifery services.

The provision of directors of midwifery is certainly very welcome as previous to this, at our highest level, we had an assistant director of midwifery who did not have autonomy. We now have directors of midwifery who have autonomy and can lead the service. The jobs were advertised and have now been filled. However, because these positions were not available, the bar was set high, as it should be, but experience should also be taken into account and these people should be allowed to attain the qualifications along with the experience.

The gynaecology element of the maternity strategy was looked into, and we as a group tried to push for its inclusion in the strategy, but it was excluded from the terms of reference. The Department of Health said it would certainly look at this when preparing the maternity strategy and that there needed to be a gynaecology strategy and that it should be to the fore.