Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The women's health action plan is welcome. When I welcome it, I must put it in context as I try to do always. We are talking about radical listening. "Listen, invest and deliver" has never happened for women in Ireland. The senior Minister had to leave and had a genuine reason but I wish he was here because I never like to contribute when he is not here.

Let us first look at the national maternity strategy. One hundred years after 1916 we managed to pass a national maternity strategy. It took 100 years to be revolutionary. Then we sat on that and did nothing. Last June, I tabled a motion and the Government agreed to it, fair play to it. It was on foot of HIQA's concern about the lack of action on the strategy's implementation. We get lots of strategies which are very positive. The strategy could not be faulted but it was not being implemented. Then today the House was told that for the first time last year and this year, the strategy was being fully resourced. Imagine that it took until 2021. That strategy came on foot of the deaths and suffering of women, as has this strategy. We look at Savita Halappanavar, Portlaoise, Portiunucla and many other hospitals where women, or their children, died or suffered. When finally we get a strategy we do not implement it. We table motions here and then, finally, a little bit is implemented.

Now we have this strategy. It would be churlish of me not to welcome the positive elements in it and some of the money that has been ring-fenced. However, when looking at what we are doing and the need for it, it is extraordinary. We are highlighting the basic services that should be there as of right and saying they are radical. I am not of that view; I am of the view that we simply cannot have an equal society and a thriving economy without good health for everyone but particularly women and children because they are the most vulnerable. That would help our economy yet we have never done it. It has never made sense to me that we talk about strategy after strategy and action plan after action plan around domestic violence, for example, when every year it costs the economy €2.2 billion at a conservative estimate. It makes eminent sense to deal with the challenges that face us immediately and in an equal way. We have not done that and, therefore, we find ourselves here today discussing this document, which states it will "listen, invest and deliver" and, more patronising still, we are told that it is radical listening. The Government has not listened to us on the national maternity hospital, has it? I am not personalising it with the Minister of State, but each time this side of the House has raised it with the Taoiseach - and we have exhausted the democratic means of raising the national maternity hospital to show our concern and worry - we have received a cynical response that we should bring a motion before the House. We brought three motions forward. I brought a motion on 2 June calling, among other things, for the implementation of the national maternity strategy and for the national maternity hospital to be in public ownership on public land. My motion was approved by the Government. Deputy Shortall tabled a motion the same month, which the Government did not oppose, and then my colleague, Deputy Joan Collins, tabled another motion. We have used all our Private Members' time to say that we are extremely concerned about what is happening. There is no radical listening there. There is just a patronising three males at the top telling us that they are assured about it and then they will reassure us.

I will be coming back to that tonight. The words "empowering women" jumped out of the national maternity strategy but they do not jump out of this plan so much. What jumps out are the words of the women who engaged, and the various organisations. They said enough is enough and they want action. We look at what is happening in relation to women and the recent study, "Midwives’ views of an evidence-based intervention to reduce caesarean section rates in Ireland". We talk about empowering women and normalising the birth process. What do we find? Words fail me when it comes to the rate of caesarean sections, which increased from 34.3% in 2019 to 35.4% in 2020. That is some medical intervention by a patriarchal medical model. Are we empowering women with that? I have not enough time to go into it but it is worth reading.

With regard to breastfeeding, I welcome that money is ring-fenced for lactation experts but that is not the solution at all. Of course, it will be helpful but we have to normalise breastfeeding. We have to make it normal and that is not what is happening. We are now making it into an expertise. There is a role for experts but it is the normalisation part we ignoring and the system is deliberately geared to keep the figures extremely low. Does the House know what the percentage is for women at six months? At six months, fewer than 6% of babies in Ireland are exclusively breastfed. From my own experience and that of my friends and colleagues I know how difficult it is and how not-normal the set-up in the hospitals is where breastfeeding is concerned. The answer being supplied is more experts. That is not the answer but I can see the use of them on occasion.

On assisted human reproduction, I think the Minister commented that he is looking forward to the Bill coming very soon. It is not going to be very soon. That Bill is extremely complex, notwithstanding that the discussion started in 2000, which is 22 years ago. I am over time so I will stop, a Cheann Comhairle. I give out about sticking to time so I will stick to time.

See this speech in context