Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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180. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated full year cost of implementing the national maternity strategy. [19439/18]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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194. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the national maternity strategy; and the additional funding that will be required for its implementation. [19453/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 180 and 194 together.

Implementation of Ireland's first National Maternity Strategy - Creating A Better Future Together 2016 - 2026 - is being led by the National Women & Infants Health Programme. To this end, the Programme has developed a detailed Implementation Plan which I was pleased to launch in October 2017. The Plan is presented under the Strategy's four strategic priorities and details how each of the 77 actions will be implemented.

The Programme has estimated that full implementation will cost in the region of an additional €80 million revenue funding over the lifetime of the Strategy. Work to identify the precise capital funding requirement is ongoing. The Strategy will be implemented on a phased basis over the coming years and therefore the funding requirement will vary from year to year. In that context, the Implementation Plan will inform the annual Estimates process each year.

In conclusion, I can confirm that additional funding of €4.15 million is being provided to the Programme this year to progress implementation of the Strategy. The Programme's priorities for 2018 include: improving quality and safety, establishing community midwifery teams and increasing access to anomaly scans. An online resource for maternity care will also be developed.