Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Again this week we have had a very tragic situation. I refer to the deaths of two babies in the same maternity unit in the space of a week and to the news of the tragic death of a mother who lost her life in Holles Street on 8 May last. It has to be said that the vast majority of pregnancies in Ireland are safe and uneventful. Nonetheless, the recent deaths will create further uncertainty. It is clear that issues arise from them. These deaths follow earlier deaths in other hospitals, including Portiuncula Hospital and the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise. It is worrying that they follow four deaths in 2014-15. It is of particular concern that we have not yet had sight of the four reports that were done. In other words, we do not have a clear idea of what transpired because the reports in question have not been published. That is unsatisfactory. A former Minister, Senator James Reilly, indicated that he would ask HIQA to undertake an independent review into a death in Cavan, but that never happened. I note that in the Holles Street case, just one external person is involved in the internal review that is taking place. We need external reviews of these issues to provide certainty.

I will explain why I am worried. I have read the two reports that were published following the review carried out at South Tipperary General Hospital and the review carried out by a management consultant at Cavan General Hospital in July 2015. I have also read the maternity strategy and the presentation made by Dr. Sam Coulter-Smith to the Oireachtas some time ago, in which he made the point that "Ireland had the highest birth rate in Europe between 2004 and 2013, yet we have the third lowest number of consultant obstetricians per 100,000 women in the population, among 34 OECD countries". All of the reports consistently refer to a lack of resources, to fundamental problems in the recruitment of clinical and managerial staff in the key obstetric centres and to fundamental manpower and resource issues. We have had many warnings and reports, but no comprehensive action has been taken to deal with the resourcing of our maternity hospitals. Does the Taoiseach accept that our maternity services are under-resourced? Does he accept that there is a need for urgent intervention and transparent action on the part of the Government?

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