Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The facility has not been built. As I said in referring to the tit for tat, the women watching this debate will not thank us for that. No one will disagree when I say I have raised the maternity services issue consistently in this Chamber since I was elected. In 2017 this House passed a Sinn Féin motion on maternity services which called for solutions to pressing matters affecting the service. I would love to be able to say that the calls included in that motion which was not opposed have been implemented but this is not the case. Many of the areas for improvement outlined that night in May 2017 still exist, and two years later they are again outlined in this motion. Women are still being denied a basic 20-week anomaly scan. While I absolutely welcome the commitment given by the Minister that they will have access to such scans by the end of the year, I am somewhat sceptical not on the basis of any ideological position that I have but merely on a quick glance at the record because there have been many false dawns on this issue. It is absolutely essential that the 20-week anomaly scan is rolled out. It is an essential screening tool.

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