Yesterday, my neighbour, Gary Toohey, tweeted a picture of himself outside the maternity hospital in Limerick, stating "Hours away from having our first child and there I am waving up at herself from outside the hospital on the street, where do you begin". His partner is Joyce and they are neighbours of mine. This is barbaric. The Taoiseach indicated to me last week this issue would be sorted. We were very much disappointed when it was not. Last week, I tabled a parliamentary question asking the HSE what maternity services were allowing in partners for critical moments during pregnancy. It could not answer me because it did not know. What is even worse is that officials did not go around and ask the maternity services themselves because they could not be bothered. This is barbaric. Once and for all, will the Government please ensure there is consistency in services to allow partners to be together in the delivery of maternity services at critical times?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue again. I know it is of enormous interest to many people in the House.

I will check up on this. My understanding was that partners could attend for the birth of their child and we were to revise the guidelines so that they could attend other appointments as well, such as the 20-week scan and some antenatal appointments.

It is not happening.

I have heard and understand there may be different policies being operated in different maternity hospitals, but I agree that a standard approach would be better and favourable. I will take it up with the Department of Health and with the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, in the next couple of days.