I will say at the outset that it is a disgrace that the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, is not here. The downgrading of maternity services at Portiuncula University Hospital is a huge issue that is causing enormous stress and worry for families in my constituency and beyond. She is accountable for this and should have the decency and courage to come in here tonight to take questions. It is deeply disrespectful to all those impacted by this. Fundamentally, this issue comes down to the health and well-being of mothers and children and ensuring the best possible outcomes for them. The consequence for mothers in my constituency in east Galway is they will have to travel to University Hospital Galway, UHG, to access maternity care. Many mothers who would otherwise have a short trip into Portiuncula could face an hour or more, depending on traffic, travelling to UHG, that is, to a hospital with limited parking and a maternity unit that is already stretched as it is. It is not acceptable to expect high-risk patients to have to travel long distances for essential care and sometimes emergency care. It is causing huge stress and worry for families and is a decision that does not appear to have been fully thought through in terms of the consequences. Moving these mothers from Portiuncula was not one of the recommendations from the summary review and there are serious concerns with the transparency around this whole process and how this decision was arrived at. The review highlighted a number of issues and many of those issues were the same as those highlighted in the 2018 Walker report. HSE management, however, has insisted those recommendations were implemented in full, while Bernard Gloster has said they were not. I wanted to ask the Minister to outline her position on this but she is not here. The bottom line is the hospital should have the resources, staffing and infrastructure to be in a position to provide top-class maternity services and mothers in the local community should expect no less than that. The staff at the hospital are fantastic and do their very best but they need the support from the Government and the HSE to address the issues. When something goes wrong, the answer should not be to downgrade the service but to make the necessary improvements. It is not the Minister of State's Department but I wish to ask if this decision will be revisited and if the Department will commit to a roadmap for restoration of full maternity services at Portiuncula.

Sentiment score: 0.11

Everybody understands that safety is paramount here and that we need to ensure the well-being of mothers and children, but forcing women in high-risk pregnancies to travel long distances is not appropriate. In the Minister of State's view, is that safe? Why would women not be given the choice as to where they can access maternity care? This will place further pressure on other maternity services and it is a downgrading of the maternity services at Portiuncula. The view among people locally, and I agree with them, is that there is an agenda here to remove services from the hospital by stealth and to centralise services. If previous recommendations had been implemented in full and proper resourcing, staffing and oversight put in place, we would not be in this position. The Government must make the necessary investments to support maternity care in Portiuncula and ensure we have a top-class maternity service there. That should be the Government's approach rather than seeking to downgrade services at this hospital. The Minister needs to answer questions about this issue as soon as possible.

Sentiment score: 0.24