Mr. Paul Reid:

The Senator, along with many other Deputies and Senators, has raised this issue. I appreciate it is very emotive. Our clinical lead for the women and infants programme engaged directly with maternity hospitals to consider a set of criteria that could support partner visits. One of the key issues, in particular given the high rates of the virus, is that we have to protect healthcare workers and settings. One or two maternity hospitals have made some further efforts to facilitate visits. It is an issue we have to keep under constant watch. We have asked maternity hospitals to take on board some of the wider aspects of care and for partners to have as much access as possible. Hospitals have to examine the risk criteria to make sure such access is safe.