Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The issue is that the Morrissey judgment has changed all that. It has changed a great deal of this and much of the thinking on it. I raised this yesterday and I respectfully ask the Minister to meet the 221+ group - the Taoiseach has already committed to meeting me - and push back the date until that is done.

On a more positive note, in fairness, the Government has listened on a number of issues in respect of where we are going with Covid-19. As regards the situation with loneliness and isolation, the creation of bubbles for people who are living alone and for single parents proposed by my colleague, Senator Moynihan, has been adopted by the Government. It also listened to calls to increase the number of people to be allowed to attend funerals for compassionate reasons, given the number allowed to attend weddings. I accept this has happened. I now ask the Government to consider some changes to allow partners and husbands to be present in maternity settings with their wives or partners, under specific circumstances. I do so for compassionate reasons. A number of parties have raised this issue in the Dáil previously.

Last Friday, I was on the street in Nenagh and I met a lady whom I will call Áine. She is a friend of mine. She beckoned me across the street and told me a very difficult story. She discovered she had lost her baby at the three-month scan in University Hospital Limerick's maternity unit. It was an awful, very upsetting story. She and her husband are devastated. Incidentally, the maternity services do a fantastic job across the country. They are amazing. I realise Dr. McKenna has carried out an analysis of guidelines for the Government, but we need to tweak them from a compassionate point of view. It cannot be the case that people who have enough money and have private consultations can have partners or husbands present at a scan, but those who do not have enough money cannot have them in the public setting.

I ask the Government to look at this again - I am not seeking to have a decision made here - because of Áine's story. She was left crying in the maternity service of the hospital. She had to go back to a ward in which women were joyous with the children they had just been given. She was left there on her own. That is barbaric. Both Áine and I believe that she and her husband will need therapy in this situation. I know her very well, and I have never seen somebody so devastated. We stood on the side of the street talking privately for over half an hour. There has to be some customisation for women to ensure their partners and husbands can attend, in very limited circumstances, for the three-month scan and perhaps at another date. In particular, they must be brought in immediately when there is bad news.

My last point relates to the situation throughout the country. I know somebody who happened to walk through the car park of a maternity hospital and was confronted with the sight of many husbands, men and partners sitting in their cars. We can, and must, do better than that. I acknowledge the Government has made changes in other areas, so I urge it to consider making a change in this regard.

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