Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1073. To ask the Minister for Health to provide the details on the Women’s Health Action Plan on postnatal supports for mothers; to provide details of the funding and the progress on each of its action points, in tabular form; if he will specifically report on the establishment of new postnatal hubs targeted at supporting women for 14 days post birth, addressing areas of postnatal care, such as breastfeeding supports, physiotherapy, and emotional and physical supports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44221/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The 2022 Women's Health Action Plan and the National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026 call for a coordinated approach to support postnatal women and new babies in the community. The National Maternity Experience Survey has shown us that improving postnatal care is a priority for women. That is why, since 2022, I have directed significant investment into piloting and establishing a national network of Postnatal Hubs. Five Hubs are already running, with four more currently in development. Budget 2025 will provide four more Hubs, bringing the national network to 13.

These Hubs provide essential care for women in the community in the weeks after birth. I know from women who have attended this service how much they value the additional support, including hotlines, birth reflections, and physiotherapy.

To initiate the first two Postnatal Hubs, in 2022 €0.9 million was allocated through the Women's Health Fund. In the same year, this Government provided record funding of €8.7 million for the National Maternity Strategy, through which three further Postnatal Hubs were funded. A total of five Postnatal Hubs were open by the end of 2023 in Cork, Kerry, Portiuncula, Sligo and Carlow-Kilkenny.

I have allocated €0.4 million in 2024 to establish four more Postnatal Hubs, with a full year cost of €1.9 million in 2025.

This Government is investing an additional €2.0 million in the National Maternity Strategy in Budget 2025, which includes €0.9 million to open four further Postnatal Hubs.

These hubs will support women for up to 6 weeks post birth by addressing many gaps identified by women in postnatal care, including through provision of specialist bespoke lactation, perinatal mental health and birth reflective clinics alongside routine midwifery-led postnatal health promotion and education clinics.

To further enhance breastfeeding supports, this Government announced funding in Budget 2025 for five new lactation consultant posts, which will be allocated based on service demand within the HSE. Funding is also being allocated for the provision of additional breast pumps for mothers of critically ill and pre-term infants, enabling them to provide breastmilk for their babies while they stay in hospital for extended periods.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1074. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of fully funding the National Maternity Strategy. [44222/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Progressing women's health continues to be a top priority for this Government.

A revised implementation plan for the National Maternity Strategy was published in November 2021. The revised Plan set out all remaining activity in relation to the implementation of the Strategy within the timeframe 2022-2026. The remainder of the Strategy’s implementation was then costed at approximately €43.7m.

€27.7m in new development funding has been directed through the Strategy from 2016-2025 with €16 million of this investment provided by this Government in 2021 and 2022. This investment has provided more than 500 whole time equivalent medical professionals, supporting our maternity services.

Investment of €2m announced for Budget 2025 (with a Full Year Cost of €4m in 2026) will ensure the continued implementation of the Strategy into 2025 and beyond. The priorities covered by Budget 2025 funding include:

• Additional Specialist Midwives to enhance women’s access to midwife-led care.
• Driving improvements in the safety of our maternity services through research, audit and new clinical guidelines.
• Recruiting more genetic counsellors and supporting staff to expand a new National Perinatal Genomics Service; evaluating, diagnosing, managing and treating anomalies before birth.
• Delivering 4 new Postnatal Hubs, to provide women with access to postnatal care in the community and away from a hospital environment.

Combined investment through the Strategy and also through the eHealth Capital Plan is driving the roll-out of the Maternity and Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS), which is a fully Electronic Health Record. The MN-CMS is currently live in 4 sites, covering 40% of births nationally. The system is being rolled out to the remaining standalone maternity hospitals to cover 70% of births nationally and 60.5% of Neonatal Intensive Care Activity. Additional funding of €4.4 million has been allocated for this expansion through the eHealth and ICT Capital Plan 2024.

Funding has also been directed through the Women's Health Taskforce and Women's Health Fund to support maternity initiatives, including €0.5 million to support the recruitment of Medical Social Workers in maternity units, over €1.3 million since 2022 to open Postnatal Hubs, and €1.3 million to establish a National Perinatal Genomics Service. Almost €1 million has been invested to develop community based Women's Health Hubs.

Funding has also been directed through the health and wellbeing programme throughout the Strategy period supporting progress against Strategy actions. In Budget 2025, almost €1 million is being invested to further enhance breastfeeding supports, including five new lactation consultant posts, and the provision of additional breast pumps for mothers of critically ill and pre-term infants, enabling them to provide breastmilk for their babies while they stay in hospital for extended periods.

This Government has invested in women's mental health services including perinatal mental health, for which funding has been directed through mental health services. To date this programme has received funding of €5.2m. We have also overseen unprecedented levels of investment across other supporting women's health services, including gynaecology, endometriosis services, and screening and menopause supports.

Following the implementation of the initiatives that have been funded in 2024-5, the HSE's National Women and Infants Health Programme (NWIHP) will assess any actions that may be outstanding as the Strategy enters its final two years. NWIHP have advised that to date 94% of actions are either completed or in progress. All of these developments, delivered under the Strategy, are supporting improved choice for women and driving safe, high quality, nationally consistent, woman-centred maternity care.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1075. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of embedding lactation consultants in all maternity units. [44223/24]

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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Encouraging mothers to breastfeed is a priority, both for the Department of Health and for the HSE National health policy. The Healthy Ireland Framework, Healthy Ireland Strategic Action Plan, the National Maternity Strategy, the Obesity Policy and Action Plan, and the National Cancer Strategy, emphasise the importance of supporting mothers to breastfeed, as well as taking action to increase breastfeeding rates in Ireland.

The HSE Breastfeeding in a Healthy Ireland Action Plan 2016-2021 is the framework for progressing supports for breastfeeding in Ireland. A HSE Breastfeeding Action Plan Implementation Group was established to oversee delivery of the plan, and a national breastfeeding Co-Ordinator was appointed as lead. The Department of Health works closely with the HSE National Breast-Feeding Co-ordinator in the implementation of HSE Breastfeeding Action Plan 2016-2021, which has been extended out to 2025.

In 2021, Minister Donnelly announced additional funding to the HSE of €1.58 million to fund 24 additional lactation consultants to support more new mothers in maternity and primary care settings to breastfeed their infants. There are currently 59.1 WTE dedicated lactation posts employed in the HSE (34.5 maternity, 23.6 primary care and 1 in Children’s Health Ireland).

In the 2025 Budget, funding for an additional five lactation consultant posts was announced by the Minister of State, Colm Burke. These posts will be allocated based on service need identified in the HSE Breastfeeding Action Plan Progress report, published in September 2024.

The government recognises the invaluable role lactation consultants play in supporting new mothers to breastfeed and is committed to improving the rates of breastfeeding to promote health and wellbeing in Ireland.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1076. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of embedding perinatal mental health services in all maternity units. [44224/24]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1077. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of progressing the first mother and baby unit for mothers who require inpatient mental health supports. [44225/24]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1076 and 1077 together.

Improving the outcomes and experiences of women in relation to perinatal mental health has been a priority for me and for the HSE since I became Minister. We have achieved great strides in Women’s Health since the launch of the first Women’s Health Action Plan in 2022 and the launch of the second Women’s Health Action Plan in April 2024.

In relation to perinatal mental health, these services are now available in all 19 maternity services nationwide.

The Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services Model of Care, launched in 2017, is based on 6 Hub sites (multidisciplinary teams in Coombe, NMH, Rotunda, Galway, Cork, Limerick) and 13 spoke sites.

6 consultant-led Multi-Disciplinary teams are in place in the hub sites. Perinatal mental health midwife posts are now in place across all the 19 sites (hub and spoke).

A Steering Group has been established to refresh the Model of Care, and the Department of Health is currently considering issues raised separately in the National Women’s Council (NWC) report on Perinatal Mental Services. The Department of Health will work closely with the HSE to strengthen the Model of Care where required, to address the gaps highlighted by the report.

With regard to the development of a Mother and Baby Unit for Ireland, this is a key element of the Model of Care and progressing the Unit is a priority for me, the Department of Health and for the HSE. The HSE is currently preparing a feasibility study on building such a Unit on the Elm Park site at St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin. This is expected to be finalised in the near future. This would include all relevant estimated costs and timescales for the Unit, which will be then considered in due course under the HSE Capital Plan.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1078. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of establishing an obstetrics event support team to support families. [44226/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE Obstetric Event Support Team (OEST) is a service provided by the HSE National Women & Infants Health Programme (NWIHP) to maternity hospitals/units to support the review process of a defined list of obstetric adverse events. The OEST provides a process for the sharing and implementation of learning and recommendations both locally and nationally. The OEST aims to support the maternity networks as they respond to the events in terms of overseeing and advising on appointment of the review panel, family engagement, conduct of the review, finalisation of the review report and follow up. In addition to assisting the health services in responding to severe maternity related incidents and in the provision of appropriate supports for patients and families, the OEST aims to ensure appropriate expert level support is available nationally by enabling learning from adverse maternity incidents to be actioned at a national level and by promoting engagement with relevant stakeholders across the maternity network.

Funding of €540,000 was provided to support the establishment and expansion of the OEST, within NWIHP, from Budget 2022 via the Women’s Health Action Plan 2022-2023. The OEST has been established and all maternity services nationally are engaging with OEST to share the learnings from events.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1079. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of a maternity bereavement survey. [44227/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Women’s Health Action Plan 2022-2023 was launched in March 2022 and committed to supporting a maternity bereavement survey, the first of its kind for Ireland. The National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey (NMBES) is part of the National Care Experience Programme, a joint initiative by the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA), the Health Service Executive (HSE), and the Department of Health.

Women and their partners (or support person) who experienced a second trimester miscarriage, a stillbirth or the early neonatal death of a baby in one of Ireland's 19 maternity units or hospitals between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2021 were invited to participate in this experience survey.

The survey reflections a commitment made in the National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026 to evaluate maternity care services from the perspectives of the women who use them.

Participants shared their experiences of the care they received, from communication and information at the time of the antenatal diagnosis, through to labour and birth, postnasal and bereavement care, neonatal care, investigations, discharge home, follow-up care and care in the community.

The results of the National Maternity Bereavement Experience Survey were published on the 18th of May 2023 and are available on

The findings of this national survey are driving service improvements in maternity bereavement care, acknowledging what is working well and identifying areas where improvements are needed. The HSE and the National Women and Infant Health Programme (NWIHP) are using the survey findings to inform and underpin NWHIP's work across a range of current and future projects and programmes.

The HSE also published their response to the findings of the National Bereavement Experience Survey 2022 with information on the quality improvement plans underway as well as their plans for ongoing quality improvement in hospitals to improve patients' care experiences.

The Department of Health is and will continue using the information gathered to inform the development of policy in relation to maternity bereavement care. HIQA is using the survey findings to inform their approach to the monitoring of maternity care.

The Department of Health remains committed to improving health outcomes for women as outlined in the Women’s Health Action Plan 2024, and HIQA has initiated work to run a second iteration of the National Maternity Experience Survey in 2025.

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1080. To ask the Minister for Health in respect of the 2022 Women’s Health Action Plan, if he will report on his Department’s achievement of the maternal health goal of developing two postnatal hubs; if he will make a statement on the postnatal hub programme; if it has dedicated funding; and budget allocation and spend on same in the past two years. [44228/24]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The 2022 Women's Health Action Plan and the National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026 call for a coordinated approach to support postnatal women and new babies in the community. The National Maternity Experience Survey has shown us that improving postnatal care is a priority for women. That is why, since 2022, I have directed significant investment into piloting and establishing a national network of Postnatal Hubs. Five Hubs are already running, with four more currently in development. Budget 2025 will provide four more Hubs, bringing the national network to 13.

These Hubs provide essential care for women in the community in the weeks after birth. I know from women who have attended this service how much they value the additional support, including hotlines, birth reflections, and physiotherapy.

To initiate the first two Postnatal Hubs, in 2022 €0.9 million was allocated through the Women's Health Fund. In the same year, this Government provided record funding of €8.7 million for the National Maternity Strategy, through which three further Postnatal Hubs were funded. A total of five Postnatal Hubs were open by the end of 2023 in Cork, Kerry, Portiuncula, Sligo and Carlow-Kilkenny.

I have allocated €0.4 million in 2024 to establish four more Postnatal Hubs, with a full year cost of €1.9 million in 2025.

This Government is investing an additional €2.0 million in the National Maternity Strategy in Budget 2025, which includes €0.9 million to open four further Postnatal Hubs.