Today is International Day of the Midwife. It is important to acknowledge the incredible work of our midwives. Unfortunately, the role of midwives in Ireland is greatly under-resourced. In many jurisdictions, midwife-led home births are the norm, but in Ireland, in some situations, women are forced into hospitals. In CHO 1, for example, covering Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim, the HSE facilitated four home births between 2015 and April 2022. I repeat that it was four. Additionally, the HSE banned water births in 2020. The Community Midwives Association, CMA, and the Midwives Association of Ireland, MAI, have called this ban non-evidence-based, unethical and inequitable. Those organisations are calling for the immediate reintroduction of water birthing. What is the Government doing to support midwives and midwife-led home births for those who want them? Will the Minister for Health instruct the HSE to lift this ban on water births, with immediate effect?

I agree with the point the Deputy is making. Our maternity system is not sufficiently midwife-led. I think it should be. That is why I want to bring back to this debate something I raised earlier concerning how we implement the national midwifery strategy. It points in the direction not of a consultant-led, active management type of system, but, as the Deputy said, to a much more patient-centred and midwife-led system. This encompasses a range of different issues, including the arrangements referred to by the Deputy regarding pool-based systems. Therefore, I agree this is the direction in which we need to go. It is set out and agreed, but it is not being delivered with sufficient speed. We must have a debate and discussion about the nature of our hospitals' structures, etc., but the subject of having a midwife-led system, and its nature, is where this debate and our attention and focus needs go.