Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 89: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if the funding provided for the expansion of the home birth service in the Dublin area will be protected in 2009; the plans to provide such a service in other parts of the country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13069/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Home birth services for women classified medically as being "low risk" are provided as an outreach from hospital service or through self employed community midwives on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding agreed with the Health Service Executive. This national framework facilitates the provision of home birth services for low risk women in areas where an appropriate clinical governance framework can be established to enable a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed. Where this is possible, self employed community midwives are paid for the service by the Health Service Executive. It is open to any suitably qualified self employed community midwife to apply to the Health Service Executive for a Memorandum of Understanding. The provision of this service is limited by the number of midwives willing to practice as self employed midwives and who are in a position to sign a Memorandum of Understanding. The ability of hospital based services to provide for outreach services on a 24 hour basis also has a bearing on the operation of such services.