Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The number one item on the agenda should be to examine maternal mortality rates in childbirth or its immediate aftermath in our hospitals in recent times. Perhaps it just gets more publicity now, but it seems to be at a higher level than previously. Surely we should always start where we can get agreement and work on that issue? It is now acknowledged in the Savita Halappanavar case that if proper medical practice had been followed, there would not have been what was an unnecessary death. That is a starting place from which we could begin to discuss this issue, and then we can move on to the other issues on which there might not be the same consensus.

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