Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil had immense difficulties in bringing in the national cancer programme and eight centres of excellence, which caused enormous difficulty, particularly in the north west, because it meant services could not be delivered in the way they had in the past. At the time, it relied on the best medical advice available not just in Ireland but across the world. I would have thought Fianna Fáil would have been the first in the queue to congratulate the Minister for Health, his Department and the Health Service Executive, HSE, for wanting to have a review of maternity services in this country so as to improve them, not reduce them. I would have expected Members opposite, considering the more complex world in which we live and the way medical services are provided, would want to ensure we have a first-class maternity service, as we have had in the past. That is what I believe will come from this national maternity service review. I urge Fianna Fáil to stop encouraging a conversation which is scaremongering. By all means have the conversation about how this review might succeed in providing the best service and care for the women of this country and their babies rather than scaremongering.

I endorse my colleagues’ call for the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charles Flanagan, to attend the House for a debate on crèches.