Ms Geraldine Cahill:

Regarding the 24 new posts, it is amazing that we are going to get those new lactation consultants. Unfortunately, these new lactation consultants are likely to be midwives as well, and therefore are also likely to have a midwifery role in addition to a lactation consultant role. Sometimes, that midwifery role takes precedence over the lactation consultation role, which is what has happened with those consultants in post already. They are not roles purely devoted to lactation consulting. The people in situare there in other roles, and the aspect of lactation consultant is almost an add-on element. There might be one dedicated lactation consultant in Cork, one in the National Maternity Hospital and one in the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, and those are the only people who have roles purely as lactation consultants and not as midwives as well. The joint role of lactation consultant and midwife is muddying the waters for the postholders, because sometimes they have to go to a birth when instead they would like to be there in the role of going to see a mum postnatally with her baby. That is not always possible. Therefore, we must clarify these international board certified lactation consultants posts more than we do now.