Leo Varadkar addresses issues with maternity services in Portiuncula Hospital

Following an independent review into seven infants who suffered oxygen deprivation after their births in Portiuncula Hospital in Galway, the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, has denied plans to remove maternity services from the hospital in question.

Discussing the issue in the Dáil last night and addressing claims that the services may be removed, the minister said: "There are absolutely no plans to discontinue maternal services at Portinucula, that's not part of this government's agenda at all."

Commenting on the findings from inquest reports into maternal deaths, Mr. Varadkar asserted that inexperienced staff was a contributing factor in a number of these cases.

Dismissing the idea that staff shortages played a role in these events, the minister said: "The deciding factor is not that the staff were too busy to do their job, it's that they made a mistake in reading a CTG (scan) or detecting a foetal heart or something else, and that can often be down to lack of experience or lack of case volume rather than there not being enough staff."

The minister's Dáil address follows his meeting this week with widowers, Sean Rowlette and Michael Kivlehan, whose wives passed away following childbirth in Sligo General Hospital.