Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The chief executive of this hospital group, Mr. Bill Maher, has stated that people are very concerned and upset about this issue. That is correct, although people are not upset that a report labelled as private and confidential was exposed by me. They are concerned that in secret the Government is considering plans to downgrade maternity services. They have expressed anger in this regard at the ballot box last week in some of these counties.

Are the reports for all these hospital group areas seeking to downgrade the services? We are specifically calling for the retention of obstetrician-led services at centres in Letterkenny, Sligo Regional Hospital, Castlebar and Portiuncula, as it is important. With tragedies, including the case of Ms Savita Halappanavar, among others, and inquests that will come to light over the next number of months, it is vital that people can have obstetrician-led services within easy access and not an hour's drive away. That is suggested in some of the recommendations of this report.

Worryingly, although the Government notes many of the issues we do and supports many of the goals we seek, the amendment falls short of seeking the retention of services. It mainly states that no decision has been made about maternity services at this stage and the Government has indicated there are no proposals at this point to downgrade services. If there are no such plans, what is the function of the 56-page report? I would love to work for the Health Partnership, as it seems to get money for nothing. It gets money for reports that have no status and which people do not read. If it is the case, it is great news.

When preparing my contribution, I noted how the Minister and others argued I was scaremongering. What would the Minister, Deputy Reilly, have done with this report if he was in Opposition? Would he have not worried as the report has no status? The practice in the Department of Health and with Ministers in general is to waste money on reports, seek proposals and then ignore them. The Government has been caught with this one as we got hold of a report we were not meant to see. It is now in the public domain, as it should be. The Department officials are smiling and I am glad my contribution is humorous for them. It is certainly not humorous for the people in the north west of the country or those working in the smaller hospitals in the other hospital groups, such as those in Tralee, Wexford, Drogheda, Tipperary and elsewhere. There is likely to be a report about them which, I presume, again has no status. All I can go on is what is in black and white, and agencies for which this Government is responsible are considering options that include midwife-led services only at some of these centres. That is a fact in the report and there is nothing the Minister can say to deny its existence. The Health Partnership, with a virtual office on Trinity Street, produced it. I do not know who works for it. I tried to make contact but I spoke to a lady who could only put me on to the HSE, with the usual laundered answers coming from it about people's services and money.

We have the lowest number of obstetricians in the OECD group of nations.