Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had a lot of understanding for that position, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic when we did not know what we were dealing with, when staff were at risk and where there were concentrated settings. However, many people are vaccinated now. The cross-party women's group in the Oireachtas had a meeting with patient advocates yesterday, some of whom were accessing maternity services as recently as two weeks ago. They have done an extensive analysis of compliance with the HSE guidelines in the hospitals around the country. They would contest much of what is being said with regard to compliance. A couple of examples give me concern. One is neonatal intensive care units, NICUs. That part of it is a conversation that, perhaps, has not been had as much as the conversations about stillbirths, early miscarriage and that side of the maternity experience. There is variation in respect of neonatal intensive care units and visiting. For example, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, guidelines make provision for that and say that visiting should be facilitated, but they do not say for how long. Do the guidelines make provision for both parents visiting at the same time in an unlimited way, depending on the severity of the child's condition in the neonatal intensive care unit? How many neonatal intensive care units are there, and how many of them are providing full and free access for parents whose child is at the most severe level of risk in a NICU?