Maternal Mental Health Supports: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-11 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel I am absolutely overwhelmed. I am delighted about the support we have received here. I thank all the Senators for their honesty and for telling their own stories. It is really appreciated. I give a huge thank you to the Minister of State. It is definitely no coincidence that it is all women Ministers driving this. I thank Senator Rabbitte for all the work she did coming up to this. She did a lot of work, as did the Ministers of State, Deputies Butler and Murnane O'Connor, and the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. They drove this, and the commitment is there now to push it on. I did not know whether or not there would be support. I am delighted not only that they have committed to actual actions that Aolish has recommended in the Year of Care campaign but also that there is actually money being put behind it. That is really important, particularly something like the perinatal mother and baby unit, which is so welcome to hear. We have heard stories today. I am a mother. I have three children. I know how difficult that time is, and it does not get any easier, especially with a third child. I was lucky enough to have a mortgage, but my maternity leave ended. I had to go back to work after six months. We have come a long way, as the Minister of State said, since our parents had us as children, but women have 26 weeks to go back to work and give the baby over to someone to look after. The people minding them are the most wonderful people. I was lucky that I was able to find childcare for my baby, my youngest boy, at six months, whereas now women are not able to do that. They have the worry about giving birth to the child and, like Senator Ryan said, about whether they will get postnatal depression. That is always in the back of our minds. Many of my friends and many people I know have had postnatal depression. That is always there, but then there are these extra worries about where we will get childcare, how we will pay our mortgage, how we will pay our rent and how we will pay our bills. I hope we can work in tandem on this. The Labour Party has a Bill providing that maternity pay is fully paid up to one year and flexible work options. While we look for childcare, we are also relying a lot on family and friends who might be able to help us with flexible work options. Most importantly, I want to say a huge thank you. I am so proud of Aolish. She is an early years provider. She runs Réalta Beaga from Coolaney. She has set this campaign up herself. She did it because she was looking for help and did not know where to get it. She has brought a group of women around her, and it is women supporting women. I am so proud of what she has done. Again, I commend her on bringing this forward. She stuck with this campaign herself. She did it with no money. She produced booklets by herself. She looked at the resources that were there. She very much recognises that there are community services there, the voluntary community sector and the healthcare providers, including GPs. We all know that midwives, GP care and public health nurses need to be properly resourced. The most important thing from this is that we know now that the commitment from the Government is there. I am absolutely delighted. Gabhaim míle buíochas leis an Aire Stáit. It is absolutely wonderful. Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-11/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:37+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-11