Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The association is not here to defend itself.

The committee is envisaging writing a report. This is a two stage process - we have been through the Citizens' Assembly and we are considering its report. We are not looking, necessarily, at the existing resources. We need to look at what is the ideal, what is best practice, what we should recommend around screening, ratios in perinatal care, contraception, folic acid and what should the health promotion unit in the HSE, for example, do in that regard. We want to make practical recommendations with some sort of vision around the ideal of maternal services such as screening. It would be quite useful if the witnesses could point the committee to where we can find that kind of information. How does Ireland compare in where we are now and international best practice? Is it possible to find this information in one location for the committee to include as recommendations in its report?