Seanad debates
Thursday, 28 September 2023
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Healthcare Policy
9:30 am
Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon.
Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I am grateful to the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to deal with this issue. I used the term "breastfeeding" in my Commencement matter submission but I am really talking about child-feeding and child-changing facilities. As a new parent, I am acutely aware of this issue, and the Minister of State will also be familiar with the difficulties parents can sometimes face when they are out and about, whether in busy shops or even on the road, in finding a place where they can change or feed a child in a quiet environment. As possible as it is to sit in the main concourse of a train station or an airport and feed a child, that is not always conducive. Especially as children get older and more easily distracted, it can be more and more difficult to feed them.
I am asking for State sponsorship and encouragement for parents to help them in the difficult role they have daily to deal with those issues. This could be done by the giving of a grant or support to small businesses in particular to provide facilities for breastfeeding, bottle feeding, changing or whatever it might be. A lot of large corporations and businesses provide these facilities as a matter of course; that is welcome and they are to be congratulated for that. As we perform badly in Ireland in respect of breastfeeding and feeding babies with breast milk, we should be encouraging this.
For a small café, shop, motorway service station or whatever it might be, there is so much regulation. I am not criticising that but there are many hoops through which people need to jump to satisfy the regulatory requirements, and it is really difficult for small businesses to provide that. For a food business, for example, there are huge food safety requirements, which are appropriate but they leave little left over, whether space wise or money wise, to provide the facilities parents might need. Particularly in the case of SMEs, the Government should be able to step in to provide support to those businesses to encourage them to provide safe, secure, comfortable and clean facilities for changing and feeding children.
This is a minimum requirement as we encourage people to have children, and we know that even though our population is growing, we need growth in the population to pay for pensions, if nothing else, and to be part of the workforce at a time when there is virtually 100% employment. We need to facilitate the parents of young children and make facilities available to them in whatever way we can, but that is a significant challenge for small enterprises and businesses with small premises. I am not talking about giving out money wholesale to businesses to do this but rather a support grant. As I know from my wife, who is breastfeeding at the moment, businesses will often say the issue is on their list and that they would like to provide the facility. They say they cannot do it at the moment, however, because of such and such a difficulty, whether a planning problem or something else, but there is always going to be a money problem as well.The more we can do to help small food businesses such as cafes and small shops in town and village centres make these facilities available, the better. We can ensure a parent who is out shopping with their child, be it a man or a woman, can have a space that is quiet, secure and clean and the facilities they need are available. It is simply a matter of an armchair, a sink to clean, a bin for rubbish and a changing table. Often these things are co-located with accessible toilets and things like that, which is fine if they are clean, but it is more difficult for small businesses to provide those facilities. I am asking the Department of Health in particular, as I think it has responsibility for this area, to consider putting in place a grant that will support those businesses and by extension those parents.
Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue and pass on the apologies of the Minister for Health, who could not be here to take this Commencement matter. The response I have been given focused on the title, which was around breastfeeding facilities specifically, but I take on board the Senator's point on the importance of ensuring we have those facilities for men or women who are feeding children, baby changing facilities, and the rest.
Encouraging mothers to breastfeed is a priority for both the Department of Health and the HSE. National health policy, including the Healthy Ireland framework, Healthy Ireland strategic action plan, national maternity strategy, the obesity policy and action plan and the national cancer strategy, emphasises the importance of supporting mothers who breastfeed, as well as taking action to increase breastfeeding rates in Ireland. The HSE's Breastfeeding in a Healthy Ireland action plan is the framework for progressing supports for breastfeeding in Ireland. The Department of Health works closely with the HSE national breastfeeding co-ordinator, who has responsibility for the implementation of the health service breastfeeding action plan 2016-2021, which has been extended to 2025.
A key action of the HSE breastfeeding action plan is to communicate the importance of breastfeeding through social media, marketing, support and advocacy. Credible online breastfeeding information and support is available through thebreastfeeding.iewebsite and the HSE's mychild.iewebsite. The mychild.iesite provides information to parents-to-be, and parents of young children. The website is part of a suite of information supports provided both directly by practitioners and online. This website covers pregnancy, labour and birth, and babies and toddlers. In the past four years, the HSE has invested in a promotional campaign for parents aged 25 to 45 on mychild.ieand one of the most popular topics, namely, breastfeeding, features strongly in this ongoing campaign. The HSE also runs MyChild social media channels on Facebook and Instagram, where breastfeeding topics are regularly featured. Once a year the HSE runs the National Breastfeeding Week from 1 to 7 October.
Despite the many initiatives to promote breastfeeding and support mothers, breastfeeding rates in Ireland remain lower than in many other countries. Many mothers still feel breastfeeding is not the norm. Mothers who breastfeed or who have tried breastfeeding can experience a range of challenges, both physical and societal. They have experienced difficulty with finding suitable places to breastfeed while out and about, as the Senator has outlined, or have been made to feel uncomfortable while breastfeeding in public. A broader societal change is needed to promote a more positive culture around breastfeeding and to ensure breastfeeding is enabled and supported in all settings, including in public spaces and in the workplace. Peer support groups and the establishment of the We're Breastfeeding Friendly initiative are very welcome supports promoted by the Healthy Ireland framework to encourage new mothers to feel comfortable breastfeeding their infants on demand. Some places may offer a private area for breastfeeding mothers, but it is parental choice should they decide to use it. It is not a requirement that premises be adapted in any way to support breastfeeding mothers under the We're Breastfeeding Friendly initiative. Any business, community group or organisation that has premises open to the general public is eligible to join this initiative. More information can be found on that at healthy.limerick@limerick.ie.
Paid maternity benefit of 26 weeks is available for those with enough PRSI contributions and a further 16 weeks of unpaid leave can also be availed of. If a parent returns to work and continues to breastfeed their baby, they are entitled to take time off work each day to breastfeed under section 9 of the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004. This applies to all women or birthing parents in employment who have given birth within the previous two years, which is 104 weeks. To conclude, in consultation with an employer, a breastfeeding parent is entitled breastfeed in the workplace or express breast milk, where suitable facilities are available in the workplace, or to have their working hours reduced without loss of pay to facilitate breastfeeding where suitable facilities are not available. However, it is important to note employers do not have to provide facilities in the workplace to facilitate breastfeeding if providing such facilities would give rise to considerable costs. There are, therefore, no plans at present to provide funding to SMEs to make high quality breastfeeding facilities available.
Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge that, as he said, next week is National Breastfeeding Week. We have lower rates and I recognise programmes are in place to encourage it. My wife's experience and mine is that breastfeeding is very much encouraged in our local area. We live in Dún Laoghaire and businesses in that area want to provide facilities for people who are breastfeeding or feeding children. As I said, this is not just restricted to women as it about parents of every type and we know families take many different shapes and forms now. However, I am disappointed by the response because I am not advocating requiring businesses to do this. I am saying businesses want to do it and parents want the facilities, but the difficulty is the disconnect, especially for small businesses that do not have the resources to do it or that face other difficulties. In advance of National Breastfeeding Week, and of the budget, and in acknowledgement not of the huge plans put in place by the Department, but of the fact we have lower breastfeeding rates and greater difficulties then other European countries, is now not the time to put in place that grant? It is a reasonable thing to ask for. It is not too much. It is a facility that could be provided for parent of all types the length and breadth of the country, if the Department wished to do it.
Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I again thank the Senator. He articulated the impediment and the societal challenges really well. I take his points of view on board and will bring them back to the Minister. We know the importance of ensuring breastfeeding mothers can breastfeed freely and comfortably in the workplace and the wider community. Research indicates breastfeeding gives a child an optimum start in life. Increasing our breastfeeding rates will contribute to the improvement in child and maternal health and also contribute to the reduction of childhood obesity and chronic diseases. The Senator's question has highlighted the need for broader societal change to promote a more positive culture around breastfeeding in the workplace and wider community. The HSE plan out to 2025 involves working closely with the Department of Health to deliver the five-point action plan. The vision of Healthy Ireland is that everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and well-being to their full potential. The Government remains committed to improving breastfeeding rates and moving forward on normalising breastfeeding within the community and workplace. Promoting breastfeeding as part of healthy lifestyle choices will remain a priority under new policy development over the coming years. I will be sure to relay the points the Senator raised to the Minister for Health.