The management consultant appointed to implement the findings of a review after the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone has told health officials he would need guarantees of funding to implement his proposals before he will deliver his recommendations.
Mr Kevin Bonnar, who was appointed by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, at the end of last year, has completed his report.
However, it is understood that he told the chief executive of the North Eastern Health Board and other board members that he would not announce his proposals until he had been guaranteed the finances would be available to implement them.
The review was prompted by concern over the circumstances surrounding the death of baby Bronagh. Her mother, Ms Denise Livingstone, arrived at Monaghan Hospital in an advanced stage of premature labour. She was put in an ambulance for transfer to Cavan General Hospital but the baby was born en route and died shortly after arrival at Cavan.
Mr Bonnar is now seeking a meeting with senior officials in the Department of Health to discuss the funding implications of the proposals in the report.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said Mr Bonnar was due to meet Department officials and had been in regular contact with them and members of the health board. The Minister's special advisers had not yet received Mr Bonnar's report.
"I can confirm that Mr Bonnar is expected to meet Department officials fairly shortly before the report is finalised in the normal course of events," she said.
An independent review panel found the baby should have been delivered in Monaghan Hospital, whose maternity unit closed over two years ago.
The chief executive of the North Eastern Health Board, Mr Paul Robinson, later accepted that Ms Livingstone should not have been transferred. The review panel made 14 recommendations. These included carrying out a fundamental review of emergency protocols in obstetrics.
It also recommended reinstating a "runner" system where an additional nurse is rostered and available for ambulance transfers, and the establishment of a "flying squad" or expert team of medics to assist in emergency cases where delivery is imminent or mother or baby are at risk.
Mr Bonnar, a former secretary general of the Department of Enterprise and Employment, was appointed last December. His terms of reference were to assist in implementing the findings of the report of the independent review panel; to recommend an appropriate management structure for Monaghan Hospital and and to facilitate the resolution of outstanding issues relating to services at Monaghan Hospital.