As the Tánaiste will be aware, the march for maternity care will take place on Wednesday, 6 October, at 1 p.m. outside the gates of Leinster House. Yesterday, the Better Maternity Care campaign group met with the HSE to discuss a roadmap for maternity care and, yet again, the group was left utterly frustrated and angry. Indeed, "heartsore" was one word used by Ms Linda Kelly, a member of the group.

At the meeting, the HSE confirmed that the current guidelines - these very restrictive guidelines - will remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Despite all the cross-party support for a return to normal pre-Covid practices for maternity care and birthing partners, why is there still no roadmap for better maternity care? Will the Tánaiste ask the Minister for Health to meet the Better Maternity Care group as soon as possible?

I am frustrated about this too, but not in any way as frustrated as someone who is pregnant or their partner must be when it comes to this issue, which has been going on for a long time. Our vaccine programme is an extraordinary success, with more than 90% of over-16s fully vaccinated and the number of cases stable, albeit still high. We are on track to open the remaining parts of our economy and society on 22 October, including the ending of restrictions and capacity limits in hospitality and the opening of nightclubs. In that context, it is hard to understand why we cannot have a return to normal when it comes to partners visiting pregnant women in hospital. This is something that I will discuss with the Minister for Health. I will probably see him today or the next day and I will let him know that the Deputy raised this matter again.