Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Health if the Health Service Executive will facilitate the transfer of parental leave to nurses who work in hospitals from their spouses who may work in other parts of the public service specifically An Garda Siochána to enable the HSE employee to take the parental leave and are there any rules preventing this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43446/12]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Health if the Health Service Executive will facilitate the transfer of parental leave to nurses who work in hospitals from their spouses who may work in other parts of the public service specifically An Garda Síochána so that the HSE employee can take the parental leave; if there are rules preventing this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43470/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 690 and 693 together.

Parental leave entitlements and their implementation are set out in the Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2006. As both of these pieces of legislation are the responsibility of the Minister for Justice and Equality, inquiries in relation to this matter should properly be directed to that Minister. The HSE's Terms and Conditions of Employment provide that parental leave entitlements may only be transferred from one parent to another if both parents are employed by the same employer, subject to the employer's agreement.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the difficulty that community midwives, excluding home birth midwives, have in accessing professional indemnity insurance; the way he intends to address this matter in view of the Programme for Government commitment to primary and community care; if he has considered the potential role of the State Claims Agency clinical indemnity scheme in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43460/12]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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The Clinical Indemnity Scheme (CIS) covers the clinical activities of public health doctors, nurses, community midwives and other community based clinical staff providing services on behalf of the Health Services Executive (HSE). is cover includes HSE midwifery led community schemes and voluntary hospital maternity services. In relation to home births for women, professional indemnity is provided under the Clinical Indemnity Scheme. is indemnity covers self-employed community midwives who enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the HSE concerning maternity care for women who opt for home birth. The women concerned must meet the carefully established medical and other criteria set out in the Memorandum. Apart from this Scheme, the Clinical Indemnity Scheme does not provide indemnity to health care professionals who are providing private services in the community (i.e. those who are not providing services on behalf of the HSE). Healthcare professionals operating in a private capacity must purchase indemnity cover from commercial insurers and I have no plans to extend the Clinical Indemnity Scheme to these healthcare professionals. The Government remains committed to the development of Primary Care services in the community; where people will have direct access to integrated multidisciplinary teams of general practitioners, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and others.