Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. Mr. Paul Reid, CEO of the HSE, was on Today FM's "The Last Word" last week talking about maternity hospital restrictions. Mr. Reid said that 16 of the 19 hospitals with maternity wards are complying with restrictions. I understand that St. Luke's General Hospital in Kilkenny, Wexford General Hospital and Tipperary University Hospital are the three hospitals that are not complying. Despite what the management at Tipperary University Hospital has been telling me, the Minister and everybody within the local community to the effect that the facility has been complying, it is clear now that it has not. St. Luke's in Kilkenny is easing restrictions from today. It will be allowing partners in when they arrive at the door. It will also be easing the restrictions relating to visiting times after birth. I call on Tipperary University Hospital to follow suit. Many of the staff and people who work at the hospital have been calling - within the hospital - for the easing of restrictions for months. I hope the position will change. In fairness to "The Last Word", it has done a lot to promote this issue in recent days. The programme highlighted the case of a person who was sitting outside in his car when he found out that his partner had had a miscarriage. I know of a case where the labour was so traumatic that the mother is receiving professional counselling in the hospital, while at the same time her partner is not allowed to visit her. What is happening is absolutely disgraceful and change in needed.

The highlighting of issues relating to maternity hospital restrictions coincides with a WHO report released last week which indicates that appropriate attention should be given to the prevention of drinking among pregnant women and women of child-bearing age between the ages of 18 and 50. This is just women: there is nothing about preventing men from taking alcohol if they are considering having children. Is it any wonder that women in the State feel unfairly discriminated against? At present, some women cannot have their partners in with them during labour. They are totally on their own and isolated. If a woman is suffering with hyperemesis, there is no drug licensed in the State to help her. Hyperemesis is one of the most debilitating conditions one can have during pregnancy. If a woman has an intention of ever having a child, or even if she cannot have a child, she is now supposedly not allowed to drink alcohol until she is 51. This only applies to females. It is utterly unacceptable.