Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My understanding is that Paul Reid and the HSE have given general guidance on maternity hospitals saying that it is allowed and indeed advised that partners should attend the birth of their child and attend scans and paediatric or neonatal ICU if their child is in there. However it is the case – it has always been the case and will always be the case - that on occasion we must allow decisions to be made by local hospitals themselves, by the senior nurse or consultant who is the person in charge of infection control, because we will have situations where there are outbreaks or issues in certain hospitals and therefore they need to be able to have autonomy in making those decisions. I hope this will not be a problem for too long.

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