Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I cannot comment on the individual case. I am not familiar with it. However, as the Deputy referenced, there was an incident in June 2022 when the HSE notified my Department of a maternal death in the mid-west following a home birth. At that time those services were then stopped. A review is being commissioned, which needs to happen quickly. I discussed this with a group of very experienced midwives who made the following point on exactly this to me: they said there are also maternal deaths in acute settings and we do not shut down the hospital maternity services. Their view was that they felt pretty strongly about that. Again, I am not qualified to make judgments on patient safety. We need this review to happen and to be concluded to take the expert advice. to listen to the voices of the women who want these services and to get to a point where we can provide the greatest possible choice while ensuring there is an appropriate level of patient safety there as well.

See this speech in context