The Rotunda Hospital has announced it is to extend its visiting hours for partners of pregnant women, following what it described as "a significant uptake in Covid-19 vaccination rates" among its patients.
Effective from Monday 13 September, the hospital says it is extending visiting hours from 8am-8pm each day.
Visiting hours are currently 10am-11.30am and 4pm-8pm from Monday to Friday, with hours of 11am-8pm on weekends and bank holidays.
It says all other existing access controls aimed at keeping patients safe will continue to apply.
In a statement the hospital said it brings visiting arrangements "close to pre-pandemic levels", adding that the arrangements are being kept under regular review.
The move comes after Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly yesterday said he would like the hospital to answer questions on allowing RTÉ to film a programme at the hospital.
The first episode of the latest series of The Rotunda aired this week on RTÉ One, which tells the stories of expectant parents and their children's births.
It has faced criticism due to it being filmed at a time when restrictions in maternity hospitals remained strict, with partners not permitted to accompany their loved one into the hospital in many instances.
Even over recent months, as restrictions have begun to ease, many women have remained unable to have their partner with them when attending maternity settings.
The minister said he is "looking into" the matter
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has also said that he does not think it is appropriate that a TV crew was allowed in to a maternity hospital while partners of those receiving care were denied access.
In relation to the programme, a spokesperson for the Rotunda Hospital said: "Filming took place from November 2020 to September 2021, with minimal numbers of crew on site at all times.
"Filming in the delivery suites mainly took place through pre-installed fixed cameras that were operated remotely. For a limited amount of filming, one crew member, or on occasion a compact two-person crew, was present onsite.
"Family and staff interviews were filmed off site in a production studio. During the course of filming strict infection prevention and control protocols were adhered to at all times.
"Management at the Rotunda Hospital decided to proceed with filming The Rotunda TV series as it is an important platform that allows patients and their families to share their pregnancy and birth stories with dignity and respect, both joyous and heartbreaking.
"We believe that it is important to hear these stories and understand how maternity services continued to operate safely for all patients despite the many challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic and also by a cyber- attack."
RTÉ said in a statement that its approach to the show had been two-fold: "To authentically tell the stories of mothers and their partners with care and compassion, and to celebrate the work of hospital staff in sometimes very difficult circumstances while at the same time bringing stories of love and compassion to the airwaves."
It said: "For filming this season, we reduced our footfall in the hospital to the bare minimum with a lot of filming taking place off-site.
"The majority of filming in the hospital was recorded by remote cameras controlled from outside the building. Additional research and filming was produced by a single person or on occasion by a compact two-person crew. Strict Covid-19 infection prevention and control protocols were followed at all times by the production."
