Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am going from memory from when Professor Louise Kenny appeared before us. Professor Daly has referred to risk groups. To paraphrase him, my understanding is that there is screening in Cork of people who are over 40 years of age and are X, Y and Z. High-risk people are being taken although, obviously, it has nothing to do with the mother's age, only certain conditions. The committee worked out that approximately one pregnancy per week in the non-risk factor group was being missed, or 50 pregnancies per year that did not go to birth. I am going from memory, so I will have to look back over the record.

How do we give people the best outcomes? Purely from the point of view of assisting the child to survive rather than the opposite, as some people might interpret my question, is it a combination of the GP being the lead person for the patient in the community and maternal blood tests being conducted at eight or nine weeks to identify what might be coming down the tracks? This would be followed on by a 12-week scan and a 20-week proper anomaly scan. Is this what Ireland needs to provide to give the best outcomes to women who are producing the next generation?