Mr. Kilian McGrane:

Regarding the Senator's question on alongside birthing centres, I do not foresee a huge capital investment requirement there. The strategy refers to the fact that for some of the existing units, where there are small centres with a relatively low number of births, some of the existing facilities can be modified to facilitate that. In larger units it is about looking creatively at what physical space is there. Obviously we do not have enough people in the office yet to have a robust discussion about it, which we need to do, but we plan to look at taking one or two sites - maybe one of the larger ones and one of the smaller ones - and putting something in place on a trial basis to see what works best.

Putting the three care pathways in place is of critical importance. We need to ensure that the model for those is well described, and that takes a little bit of time, but there is no reason we cannot use the existing facilities in a more creative way. As the Senator has seen, the alongside birthing centres are about taking the complexity away and normalising the birth, which is central to the approach.

On the funding issue we have to develop an implementation plan which we have committed to do by mid-year. At that stage we would be better able to answer the question about funding. Clearly there is always a big funding component to it.

Deputy O'Connell asked about the priorities for the programme. We see them as two-fold at this stage, although that is not to eliminate anything else. One is the managed clinical networks and the second component, which is related to it, is the quality and patient safety agenda. There are costs associated with implementing both of those and we would see that as being the No. 1 priority for us. If we can do that, then all the other things that are so important in the strategy can flow from it.

We definitely intend to make progress on the alongside birthing centres this year, but will probably do it in a phased way so we can make sure the model works. It will be different depending on the nature of a tertiary or secondary centre.