Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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44. To ask the Minister for Health when the restrictions on visits to maternity units will be lifted at Cavan General Hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23704/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge that the current restrictions in maternity hospitals are presenting difficulties and this is hugely regrettable. However, it is necessary to reduce footfall in order to protect women, babies, staff and our maternity service as a whole.

Maternity hospitals have performed well during the pandemic and have continued to keep women, babies and staff safe. The fact that there have been no Covid maternal deaths in this country,and that we have a had a low incidence in pregnant women, suggests that the current approach is working.

However, we must remain vigilant as services resume and higher numbers of people attend hospitals. Maternity hospitals rely on very specialised personnel; should an outbreak of COVID-19 occur in a maternity hospital, the ability to provide safe, quality care would be severely impacted. It should be remembered that maternity hospitals care for fragile infants at the extremes of prematurity.

All maternity hospitals are challenged by the pandemic, but those challenges vary considerably. Decisions on any restrictions are therefore made, implemented and reviewed at hospital level.

Decisions to restrict visitors in our maternity hospitals have not been taken lightly. Management and staff are acutely aware of the very important support provided by partners at the time of birth. I have been assured that maternity hospitals wish to facilitate this support as far as possible. In that context, I can assure the Deputy that restrictions, currently in place in Cavan and Drogheda, have been minimised as much as possible and will be subject to ongoing review.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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46. To ask the Minister for Health if there will be changes to the memorandum of understanding with Northern Ireland in respect of Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23690/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A Memorandum of Understanding was formally agreed by the Chief Medical Officers of the Department of Health and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland in April. The MOU was entered into in order to strengthen North/South co-operation on the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The MOU has formalised and underpinned the significant engagement between the Ministers, the Chief Medical Officers, and the Departments throughout this pandemic. The MOU is facilitating greater co-operation and consistency of approach wherever possible on areas such as public health messaging, programmes of behavioural change, evidence base/modelling and contact-tracing.

My predecessor, Deputy Harris, and I have been in ongoing contact with the Minister of Health in Northern Ireland throughout this pandemic in relation to how each health system is implementing various public health responses. In addition, there has been significant engagement between the CMOs and officials in both jurisdictions. Minister Swann and I have met on two occasions to date.

Calls continue to be held regularly, including at a technical level, to facilitate information-sharing on topics such as modelling, testing and contact-tracing approaches, tracing apps and travel measures.

The MOU continues to have the support of both Administrations. The recent Plenary meeting of the North South Ministerial Council noted the MoU and welcomed the close and productive cooperation that has taken place between Health Ministers, Chief Medical Officers and health administrations, North and South, to deliver an effective public health response.