Debate contribution: Daisy Hill Hospital: Inpatient Maternity Services
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Ministerial Statement
- Heading
- Daisy Hill Hospital: Inpatient Maternity Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742425
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for her question. As she has set out well, how expectant mothers receive the news needs to be handled sensitively. Those who are due within the next few weeks will be able to use Daisy Hill Hospital safely. However, for those who are at 26, 28 or 32 weeks, this will cause concern. That is why it is really important that we get the tone of this right. I do not want to overpromise or under-deliver. That is a hard thing to balance. One of your first questions referred to your party colleague Ms Kimmins, and I say this to you both: I have an absolute commitment to equity of access to health and social care regardless of where you live in Northern Ireland. We have to factor that into our calculations. Sometimes, the rural impact assessment gets overlooked across government. I am not critiquing my Department or anybody else; I just think that, sometimes, it is not looked at in that depth. As a Minister, I absolutely will do that, and that comes down to instances like this. In regard to the consultants, I have acted appropriately. I have not spoken to them directly, because it would not be appropriate for me to do so, but I was able to engage with the trust that employs them and to ask the trust a series of questions about what has been done, what conversations have happened and what the opportunities are. Those conversations are ongoing, and I do not want to prejudice any of that today. This is a sensitive moment, and I do not want to spoil any opportunities. As Minister, I could not speak to consultants, but the trust has assured me that those conversations have happened and are ongoing.
296 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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