Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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370. To ask the Minister for Health the way in which the €3 million allocated to maternity services in 2016 to allow for the implementation of the national maternity strategy was spent [32133/17]

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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371. To ask the Minister for Health the way in which the extra €6.8 million allocated to maternity services in 2017 to allow for the implementation of the national maternity strategy will be or has been spent [32134/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 370 and 371 together.

Ireland's first National Maternity Strategy - Creating A Better Future Together 2016 - 2026 - will be implemented on a phased basis led by the National Women & Infants Health Programme.

€3 million development funding provided for maternity services in 2016 was allocated in line with the Strategy, and included funding for additional staff, including 100 midwives, the development of specialist bereavement teams and for the implementation of the Maternal and Newborn Clinical Management System. Increased funding of €6.8m has been provided for maternity services in 2017 and will cover the full year costs of the following 2016 developments:

Appointment of Directors of Midwifery to all maternity units, as recommended by the HIQA Report on Portlaoise;

1. Establishment of the National Women and Infants’ Health Programme Office:
2. Implementation of the Flory Report into South Tipperary General Hospital;
3. 100 additional midwives, as recommended by the Birth Rate Plus report;
4. 14.5 bereavement counsellors, to support families after perinatal death, or traumatic event;
5. Additional posts to facilitate the establishment of the managed clinical network between the Coombe Women and Infants’ University Hospital and Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise, within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group.
6. Support the implementation of the Maternity and Newborn Clinical Management System.