Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister said the strategy only came in in January but, 11 months on, 13 maternity hospitals do not have access to ultrasound scans and they have been unable to recruit programme directors and so on. An inherent weakness in the strategy is the lack of targets and timeframes. The need to deliver way beyond the number of midwives that has been sanctioned, which would have a valuable impact, has not been taken on board enough. The number needs to be doubled or trebled. I welcome the recruitment of 100 additional midwives but the HSE spent €6 million last year fighting claims in maternity cases. That money would have enabled the recruitment of 200 midwives. The Minister is going in the wrong direction and the strategy has not been implemented quickly enough. I have received horrific correspondence from midwives at the coalface of this crisis.

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