The past year has been extremely stressful for expectant parents. As the Taoiseach knows, public health restrictions have meant women have had to attend the majority of their maternity appointments without their partner. In some cases this has led to situations where women were getting very difficult and indeed traumatic news on their own. Ahead of the Taoiseach's announcement on the easing of public health restrictions, pregnant women and their partners were led to believe full access for partners would be granted for all prenatal care, all scans and all appointments. However, his announcement fell well short of that and he has left pregnant women and their partners very concerned and disappointed. Consequently, I ask that he correct that situation to ensure women can have their partner with them for all prenatal care, all scans and all appointments.

The Deputy's time is up.

What the Taoiseach announced last week around the 20-week scan and attendance where established labour was under way existed already in hospitals so we are asking the Government to take the next step. It is the right thing to do.

First of all, I am very supportive of the need for women to be accompanied by their partners at all prenatal scans. Clinical directors have determined this from the outset of the pandemic on public health grounds and on no other grounds. We have sought in our engagement with the HSE to ensure there would be national uniformity in the application of these guidelines, and given that case numbers and the spread of the virus has been very substantially suppressed within hospital environments, it seems to me expectant mothers should be facilitated in this regard. I will continue my engagement with the HSE on that front.