Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I join the other Members in thanking Deputy Connolly and her team for bringing forward this very important motion. Over the past year I have had to repeatedly raise the issue of restrictions in maternity hospitals. Despite reassurances that this issue would be dealt with, it was not. While the rest of society had opened up, and while we could even go to the pub, mothers were and still are expected to go through labour mainly alone, while partners are lucky if they get to attend the birth of their own child.

Reflecting on this past year, it is very apparent that pregnant people do not have a lobby group and that they are not an economic priority. One year later and some efforts have been made to address this, but it is not enough. Last December, for example, the HSE reclassified partners as essential accompanying persons for the purpose of the 20-week scan, but then they became unessential for the remainder of the maternity journey, which makes no actual common sense to anybody.

That the Minister has left the House for this debate says it all. Maternity services are relegated because they are a women’s issue and they are overlooked because they can be. This is changing, however, and it is changing fast. The recent maternity restrictions campaign has shown an incredible solidarity and it is not only the people currently affected but also other parents. Other women are showing an incredible solidarity and families are sharing their stories of miscarriages and the need for more supports. There is a new strength of purpose in ensuring that maternity services are better for the women next to come in the door. The Government would do well to note this solidarity.

Today’s motion brings us to the reality of implementing a strategy that is about resourcing, staffing, and paying for the healthcare that parents and babies are entitled to. Crucially, we need the staff and facilities to run a safe and dignified service. Last year’s HIQA report into maternity services outlined how midwifery staff are working overtime to address staffing deficits and to maintain service levels. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, has consistently highlighted that our midwife-to-birth ratio is much higher than it should be. The Government must implement robust recruitment and retention strategies to make nursing and midwifery careers more attractive and to ensure that all our nurses and midwives in training are properly paid and have the option of working in Ireland.

Disgracefully there is essentially no consideration of disabled women in the current strategy. Witnesses at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters have highlighted the systemic barriers these women face, including the lack of proper infrastructure, absence of interpreters, and inadequate information for informed decision making in all aspects of maternal health. The strategy implementation plan needs to consider the needs of people with disabilities, as well as vulnerable or marginalised groups.

This motion rightly insists on the public ownership of the new national maternity hospital. It is unbelievable that in 2021 we have to even discuss this. Maternal healthcare needs to be free of private interests or religious control. It is intolerable that a particular ethos would determine what healthcare people get rather than medical need. The Minister needs to give an absolute guarantee today that the new national maternity hospital will be publicly owned and operated.

The current national maternity strategy is Ireland’s first. As we pass through a decade of centenaries, we are reminded that it took almost 100 years for the State to take a properly organised approach to maternal healthcare. Instead, women were too often sent to institutions, the mother and child scheme was heavily resisted, and until 2018 those in need of abortion care were shipped abroad.

These realities reflect the position of women's healthcare in our society. In case Deputies think I am exaggerating, they should read the motion, as the only reason we have a national maternity strategy is the very tragic death of Ms Savita Halappanavar. As well as the specific findings surrounding Savita’s passing, the HIQA report highlighted the lack of co-ordination and inconsistencies in the provision of maternity services. For the national maternity strategy to mean anything, it must be implemented and resourced properly. It is outrageous that we need this motion but we do.

The Government needs to listen. We do not need lists of the achievements the Department of Health has written for the Minister but rather real political decision-making to immediately provide a comprehensive, time-bound and fully costed implementation plan. Anything less is unacceptable.

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