Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the measures in the budget. From the point of view of jobs and small businesses, it was a great budget. Every sector of society was positively helped, particularly in the area of health. As Senator Burke mentioned, GP care for the under 12s is a great move. I welcome the extra nurses and extra investment generally in the respite grant and so on.

There are two areas I wish to highlight that should be emphasised in future budgets, or sooner, if the funding becomes available in the short to medium term. Recently, Roy Keane made amusing comments about breastfeeding. It was all very funny, and I did a press release referring to "Keane on breastfeeding" because really we perform very badly in this area. An AIMS Ireland survey found that only 56% of new Irish mothers breastfeed, compared to 80% in the UK and 90% in Scandinavia. Most women cited a lack of support as the reason a lot of them chose to give up trying. I did some research and it seems that we need to have a great deal more emphasis on the supports required by new mothers. For instance, we need lactation consultants in hospitals. It is an area we could do with funding in the medium term.

The other area that needs funding is IVF. Many couples suffer infertility in this country and it is recognised as a disease by the World Health Organization. Even plastic surgery is supported on the public health system in a lot of cases. The €4,000 to €5,000 minimum cost per cycle of IVF is very expensive for couples trying to have a baby. In Belgium, it has been funded since the 1990s and in the UK it has been funded since 2000. In Wales and Scotland, there is an entitlement to two cycles of IVF treatment on the NHS. Now that we are starting to see the economy settle and grow and the worst days are behind us, we must start to invest in things like IVF and breastfeeding. It is a hugely positive thing for babies to be breastfed. While it is not necessarily a matter that is very comfortable to talk about, that may be part of the problem. Certainly, I would like to see an emphasis on these areas.