Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

The regional service plans are completed. Every region must make its submission to the national service plan and, therefore, most of the work has been done. Despite the fact that the bulk of what happens in midwifery is the delivery of babies, not all of it relates to the delivery of babies. The remit is a little wider than that. I will not go into detail but, nevertheless, more is involved than that.

It is difficult to put a plan in place when one inherits a country that has been wrecked. The scale of what the Government has to deal with is enormous. As Deputy McConalogue's colleague, Deputy Calleary, is aware, I do not go in for the rhetoric of blame. We are busy enough trying to sort out the problem. The depth of the recession that this country is in dictates that we must make hard choices in the future. We must manage how we go forward. I agree entirely with Deputy McConalogue that the safety of mothers and babies is paramount. We must examine where we can plug those gaps. That is being considered as we speak. No one should underestimate the scale of the trouble this country is in.

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