Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The short answer is "Yes". We need to put as much funding into and political and administrative focus on these services as possible. We must push on. That is why there is so much focus on getting the national maternity hospital, the home away from home suite strategy and the national maternity strategy moving as quickly as possible.

With regard to the home away from home suites referenced by the Deputy, it is a similar environment to the birthing infrastructure of the midwife-led units, MLUs. There are nine sites, in Drogheda, Cavan, the Coombe, Mullingar, the National Maternity Hospital, Wexford, Cork, Waterford and Limerick. Four sites in Kerry, Sligo, Portlaoise and Letterkenny are developing services as well. Some €195,000 was allocated this year. Some 19 services have antenatal midwifery clinics which is really important. Some 74 midwifery-led clinics are being held every week, which is fantastic to see. The national average of 24% of women are in a supportive care pathway at this point.

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