I am going to read one woman’s account of her postnatal care:

At my 6 week post natal check, the consultant who had delivered my baby asked me only about contraception. There were no questions about my mental health, my emotional state, or how I was coping. I left that appointment feeling invisible and unheard. Like I was just a vessel that had to ‘get on with things’.

After giving birth, mothers are faced with a countdown. Six weeks of postnatal care. Six-weeks of check-ups. Six weeks, and then you are on your own. Life with a newborn does not become easier after those six weeks. For so many women, it becomes even harder. postnatal depression, anxiety and overwhelm can build up over months. When sleep deprivation accumulates, when your partner goes back to work, when supports fall away and when you start to feel invisible and unheard, everyone expects you to just get on with it. Of course, all of these are immeasurably harder for single parents.

This is the reality that is being highlighted by Aolish Gormley and the Year of Care campaign. Those involved are asking for something very simple, namely for the Government to finally prioritise mothers. There is no strategy for supporting mothers' physical and mental health in their first year after giving birth. With postnatal appointments largely ending after six weeks, mental health supports are inconsistent, inaccessible or entirely absent. Paid leave ends months before many women have physically or psychologically recovered.

The maternity and infant scheme which outlines postnatal care in Ireland has not been updated since 1997. That is 29 years ago. The long-promised review has been endlessly delayed. An entire generation of women have been born, are having children and are going through the same old creaking system as their mothers did. The standard of postnatal care in Ireland is far below what is available in other countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands. Despite the incredible work of midwives and other staff in our maternity services, our system does not represent best practice. It does not embody the reality faced by mothers in 2026 and it does not reflect everything we know about the importance of the first year for mother and child.

What makes this more frustrating is that the Government has already acknowledged so many of the flaws in the system. Many of the solutions are contained in the national maternity strategy, which is gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.

I ask the Taoiseach to follow through and to recognise that birth has a profound impact on women's health and well-being far beyond six weeks, and for the State to finally step up and help mothers through that first difficult year. I am asking him to deliver a mother and baby unit so that getting mental health support does not mean being separated from one's baby. Will the Government produce a strategy to expand physical and mental health supports to mothers for an entire year after birth? We have been waiting on a review of the maternity and infant scheme for ten years. It is supposed to be ready in quarter 1 of this year. When will the report be published?

Without question care for mothers particularly postnatal is absolutely important. Despite what the Deputy said, the Government has made a lot of progress in this area over quite a number of years, in particular the establishment of nine postnatal hubs, giving women access to postnatal care in community settings. Additional funding of €2 million in 2025 will initiate four further hubs which will bring the total network to €13 million. Some €28 million in new development funding has been invested in the national maternity strategy, transforming maternity services for mothers and babies. Over 550 additional full-time staff have been funded across maternity services, including 44 consultants, and 381 nurses and midwives.

In terms of the mental health dimension, the expansion of specialist perinatal mental health services has been prioritised and again funding has been provided for additional posts this year to meet the demand, particularly in the busiest of hospitals. The HSE is reviewing the model of care this year with a view to further expanding services as per the programme for Government. The perinatal mental health service is available in all 19 maternity hospitals nationwide, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old with an existing or new mental health challenge. Work is under way to deliver Ireland's first mother-and-baby unit with a site currently being confirmed at St. Vincent's hospital.

There have been a lot of service improvements. Without question we have more to do and we will continue to invest in this area as we have in maternity more generally. There will be a successor to the current national maternity strategy. The current one runs from 2016 to 2026. That is imminent and work is under way on that. The programme for Government commits to the mother-and-baby mental health unit, doubling the number of multidisciplinary teams for pregnant women, increasing the number of perinatal mental health midwife posts, and proactively providing mental health supports through maternity hospitals following trauma events connected to pregnancy and childbirth. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is strongly committed to this.

There are a range of other programmes in the gynaecological and obstetric area where there have been very substantial investments and improvements. That has to also be acknowledged. Significant developments have taken place with postnatal depression and care after pregnancy. We acknowledge clearly the need to do more and are prepared to do more.

I thank the Taoiseach. I acknowledge that the postnatal hubs delivered through Sláintecare do excellent work. The point that the care campaign is highlighting is that those services need to be expanded massively to address the mental health gaps in postnatal care. It is clear that it has not been prioritised to the extent that the Taoiseach just laid out. There is evidence of that in fact that is it has not been reviewed in 29 years. I specifically asked about the review of the maternity and infant scheme. It was supposed to be ready in quarter 1 of this year. When will it be ready?

The Taoiseach mentioned the mother and baby unit in his reply. When will that be delivered? Is it planned to have more than one in Ireland? We are far behind other countries like the UK on this. The care campaign is not calling for anything radical. We need our maternal health care to be evidence based. We need to recognise the immense physical and mental toll giving birth takes on people. We need to expand supports in that regard. We need to expand paid leave to cover the first year of a child's life. We need to modernise the maternity and infant scheme, and to implement the national maternity strategy.

The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, are absolutely committed to expanding this. I am not clear about that 29-year reference but I repeat that in terms of mental health, the perinatal mental health service is now available in all 19 maternity hospitals, supporting pregnant women and women with a baby up to one year old. That is the current position. As we discussed this morning, both the Minister and the Minister of State are quite committed to prioritising this even further and also in terms of the mother and baby unit in St. Vincent's Hospital. Again, I see no difficulty in the Government working with the Opposition in this area and working with the campaign in terms of ensuring that we do the best and the optimal for the women and children of Ireland.