Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 July 2021
363. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health if funding will be provided to remove any barriers to recruitment of new international board certified lactation consultant hospital posts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32191/21]
View answerAs this Parliamentary Question relates to an operational issue, it is a matter for the HSE. However, members of the Oireachtas are advised that the HSE is currently unable to access the information to answer Parliamentary Questions due to the recent cyber-attack, which has required a temporary shut-down of HSE IT systems. The disruption to service is on-going, and the HSE is working hard to restore its IT capacity and resume normal services. Members of the Oireachtas will be advised as soon as the HSE is again in a position to provide responses to PQs and are encouraged to resubmit their Parliamentary Questions at that point.
Healthy Ireland has made a significant investment towards giving children the best start in life through facilitating the implementation of the National Breastfeeding Action Plan. In order to improve child and maternal health, as well as reductions in childhood obesity and chronic diseases, we need to improve our breastfeeding rates. For this reason I announced in May funding of €1.54m which will provide the additional 23.5 lactation consultants across hospital and community settings, that are required to ensure timely skilled assistance for mothers who wish to breastfeed and support enhanced training, skills and knowledge to frontline staff.
