Dr. Peter McKenna:

The three issues Deputy Donnelly raised are legacy and historical ones. We in the women and infants health programme have as an aspiration that women with epilepsy would be seen at specialist clinics where there could be liaison between obstetric services and neurology services. This is difficult to achieve in all but the biggest hospitals at the moment owing to the scarcity of neurologists. There are very few in the country and their services are spread very thinly. That would be one of our aspirations.

Another one would be that women who attend these clinics would have access to specialist scanning with targeted anomaly scanning so that if possible, the problem could be diagnosed at an early stage should there be an anatomical problem. The third is that they could be put in contact with paediatric services upon discharge so that if there was any developmental problem, they could access remedial services as soon as possible. The aspiration of those in the women and infants health programme would be to deal not just with the valproate issue but with women who need specialist epilepsy services.