Vol. 430 No. 2
13 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Health if he will specify the composition of the Committee appointed by his Department to oversee the review of the maternity and infant care scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The review of the maternity and infant care scheme was initiated by the former Minister for Health, Dr. John O'Connell, to examine the role and effectiveness of the scheme in the context of the maternity services generally. The initial membership of the group was as follows: Dr. Peter Boylan, Master, National Maternity Hospital; Dr. Gerard Cummins, General Practitioner, Irish College of General Practitioners; Mrs. Norah Cummins, Public Health Nurse, Institute of Community Health Nursing; Dr. A.N. de Souza, Director of Community Care, South Eastern Health Board; Ms. Maura Foran, Western Health Board; Dr. Elizabeth Griffin, Neo-Natologist, Coombe Hospital; Ms. Dora Hennesy, Department of Health; Dr. Peter Keogh, General Practitioner, nominated by the Irish Medical Organisation; Dr James Reilly, General Practitioner, Irish Medical Organisation; Dr. Martin White, General Practitioner, Irish Medical Organisation; Dr. Jim Kiely, Department of Health; Dr. Tom Matthews, Paediatrician, Faculty of Paediatrics and Dr. Brendan Powell, Consultant Obstetrician/Gynaecologist, nominated by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
I have recently expanded the group to include a midwife and a consumer representative. Ms. Ann Martin, midwife, was nominated by An Bord Altranais and the consumer representative, Ms. Bernie O'Hanrahan, has been nominated by the Council for the Status of Women. The group is chaired by Mr. Peter McQuillan, former chief executive officer of the South-Eastern Health Board. The work of the group will be completed this year.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I am delighted to note that the Minister has included in the group a representative of the midwifery profession since the exclusive consumers of all maternity services are women. The absence of such a representative had been one of the great deficiencies of the maternity and infant care scheme since establishment. In relation to the gender balance on the review committee, is the Minister happy that a proper balance, between males and females, has been struck? Can he confirm that only four or six of the 14 members are women?
When I was given the breakdown I was concerned that a proper balance had not been struck and, for that reason, I expanded the membership to include two other women. The difficulty when one establishes boards such as this is that when one asks constituent bodies, such as the IMO or other faculties, to nominate a person one has to accept their nominee. I do not think the gender factor was taken into account by all the nominating bodies but I will take it into account if any further boards are set up during my term of office.
Will the Minister agree that, in carrying out any review of maternity services, the needs of women as expressed by them rather than those perceived by health professionals, as was the case in the past, should be of paramount importance? I congratulate and thank the Minister for responding to the requests that representatives of the midwifery profession and consumers should be included.
Although the time available for priority questions is exhausted we ought to take Deputy McManus's question.
I concede five minutes.
We are already 12 minutes over time.
This is an important question.
The Minister was out of order; he read out a reply which ran to ten pages.
