Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)

I want to raise the issue of the maternity unit at Portiuncula University Hospital.

During his time as Minister for Health, the Tánaiste would have been very aware of the Walker report in 2018. There is a problem in the maternity unit in Portiuncula Hospital. I had an exchange with the Minister for Health a couple of weeks ago. The narrative being sold by HSE West North West is that this unit has failed in spite of the implementation of the Walker report in 2018. The chief executive of the HSE, Bernard Gloster, said at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health a number of weeks ago said that it was patent to him that the Walker report was never implemented. So now we have a different narrative, which is that the Walker report was never fully implemented and this unit has failed. Can the resources that are required to implement the 2018 Walker report - all the same problems identified by Professor Coulter Smith in 2025 in the first seven of 12 cases - be provided?

There is confusion down there. We were told that 300 cases would be moved into UHG. I was at a meeting of GPs with the clinical director and the associate clinical director a couple of weeks ago. The clinical director told GPs that there was no evidence to move many of the categories they were talking about moving. Women with gestational diabetes are not being moved despite the fact that the HSE identifies that it is not safe for them to have their children there. Will the resources that are required to have a fully functioning maternity unit in Portiuncula Hospital be provided as per the Walker report? It was quoted to me that HIQA performed a review of the Walker report. It did not do that. It did a general one-day review in April 2019 and identified all those issues.

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