"There's been no response."

The #BetterMaternityCare campaign has been working towards ending partner restrictions in Irish hospitals for the better part of a year. As many Covid-19 restrictions lift across the country today, the campaigners have now stated that "enough is enough," and are organising a 'March For Maternity' to end the restrictions on partners attending maternity services once and for all. We invited Linda Kelly of Women Ascend to speak to us on the Her Podcast to give us an update on what's been happening with the campaign. Linda told us their urgent request for a meeting with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has gone unanswered: "Yeah, so he's ignoring us," she said. "That's the update, there's been no response to our request for an urgent meeting with the minister. "He's very good at making media statements around different aspects to do with the restrictions. If you cast your mind back to May, he actually made a promise in a media interview that he would end all partner restrictions, so we're quite surprised that he hasn't come back to us given that he himself has said that he's committed to ending these restrictions. We're still going to ask for that meeting." The 'March for Maternity' protest is taking place on Wednesday, October 6 at 1 pm outside Dail Eireann. The campaign is calling for people to register for the event in order to keep track of attendees. You can get more information on the march and listen to our full interview with Linda of the #BetterMaternityCare campaign here.