Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Níl drogall ar bith orm mo thacaíocht a thabhairt don rún seo. Déanaim comhghairdeachas leis an gComhaontas Glas. I have no hesitation in supporting the motion. I congratulate the Green Party and the Social Democrats on tabling this very comprehensive motion. While I hope it will not become a pattern, for the second time in a number of weeks, I find myself praising the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, who unfortunately is not in the Chamber. It is my second time praising him for accepting a concept that he is going to work on.

However, I am somewhat concerned at the warning about costs. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy, who is in the House, might come back to that. We are talking about a very finite number of people - 4,500 premature babies, which is one in 16 births. It is a very small number and a very small cost. As I said previously, in this new politics we need to ask what the cost of not doing it would be.

I have said it about mental health and domestic violence. The actual cost of not doing something is worth billions of euro to the economy. With premature babies the actual cost includes that of the stress involved. I accept that every family is affected differently and every child born prematurely could have between no problems and a whole range of problems. Dr. John Murphy, Clinical Lead for Neonatology at the National Maternity Hospital, captured it when he stated:

Family centred and developmentally supportive care is becoming more recognised as an essential attribute of high-quality neonatal and family care. Infants and families who must traverse the [NICU] deserve the quality of care that this care giving philosophy demands by providing an environment for the family that is comfortable, safe and supportive of their individual needs.

Perhaps the Minister of State will keep that in mind when looking at costs from a tunnel vision point of view rather than what would be saved were legislation to be introduced following this motion. I would say that Dr. Murphy's words have a broader application but tonight's debate relates to premature babies alone. There would be a huge cost saving if we broadened out the concept of cost rather than having a tunnel vision approach.

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