Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Colleagues have raised the issue of birth partners on several occasions. I wish to raise it specifically in respect of Limerick maternity hospital. There continue to be issues with access for birth partners. The Leader will agree with me that birth partners are an essential part of a woman's healthcare at every stage of pregnancy. Service users still face several restrictions in Limerick maternity hospital. They still labour alone for hours or days until they undergo a now mandatory vagina examination to determine whether they are dilated by 4 cm. I cannot even believe I am reading this. This is cruel and raises issues regarding informed consent and in some cases traumatises the birthing person.

I know the Minister has spoken out about this and the HSE has given guidelines. The difficulty is that some local hospitals are not following those guidelines. I will write to the Minister today because it is just not acceptable. As someone whose partner had three Caesarean sections, I cannot imagine how women are feeling at the moment if they do not have access to their birth partner. It strikes me as incredibly cruel and I ask for the Leader's support on that issue.

Representatives from throughout the country will be aware of the plans to effectively privatise our local employment services. Why is the Government set on privatising our local employment services? A SIPTU representative has said that the current tendering processes, which include financial rewards for companies, are the beginning of the process of wholesale privatisation. If these tendering processes proceed as planned, it will lead to the wholesale privatisation of local employment services. This will effectively force out the community-based non-profit providers of local employment services.

Disturbingly, SIPTU wrote to the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in March and is yet to receive a reply. I predict that after these services are privatised, people from all parties will claim it is terrible and ask why it happened. It is happening now and the Minister has not even agreed to meet the union representing these workers. I call for an urgent debate on the matter.